The U.S. Media Suffered Its Most Humiliating Debacle in Ages and Now Refuses All Transparency Over What Happened

Friday was one of the most embarrassing days for the U.S. media in quite a long time. The humiliation orgy was kicked off by CNN, with MSNBC and CBS close behind, and countless pundits, commentators, and operatives joining the party throughout the day. By the end of the day, it was clear that several of the nation’s largest and most influential news outlets had spread an explosive but completely false news story to millions of people, while refusing to provide any explanation of how it happened.

The spectacle began Friday morning at 11 a.m. EST, when the Most Trusted Name in News™ spent 12 straight minutes on air flamboyantly hyping an exclusive bombshell report that seemed to prove that WikiLeaks, last September, had secretly offered the Trump campaign, even Donald Trump himself, special access to the Democratic National Committee emails before they were published on the internet. As CNN sees the world, this would prove collusion between the Trump family and WikiLeaks and, more importantly, between Trump and Russia, since the U.S. intelligence community regards WikiLeaks as an “arm of Russian intelligence,” and therefore, so does the U.S. media.

This entire revelation was based on an email that CNN strongly implied it had exclusively obtained and had in its possession. The email was sent by someone named “Michael J. Erickson” — someone nobody had heard of previously and whom CNN could not identify — to Donald Trump Jr., offering a decryption key and access to DNC emails that WikiLeaks had “uploaded.” The email was a smoking gun, in CNN’s extremely excited mind, because it was dated September 4 — 10 days before WikiLeaks began promoting access to those emails online — and thus proved that the Trump family was being offered special, unique access to the DNC archive: likely by WikiLeaks and the Kremlin.

It’s impossible to convey with words what a spectacularly devastating scoop CNN believed it had, so it’s necessary to watch it for yourself to see the tone of excitement, breathlessness, and gravity the network conveyed as they clearly believed they were delivering a near-fatal blow on the Trump-Russia collusion story:

There was just one small problem with this story: It was fundamentally false, in the most embarrassing way possible. Hours after CNN broadcast its story — and then hyped it over and over and over — the Washington Post reported that CNN got the key fact of the story wrong.

The email was not dated September 4, as CNN claimed, but rather September 14 — which means it was sent after WikiLeaks had already published access to the DNC emails online. Thus, rather than offering some sort of special access to Trump, “Michael J. Erickson” was simply some random person from the public encouraging the Trump family to look at the publicly available DNC emails that WikiLeaks — as everyone by then already knew — had publicly promoted. In other words, the email was the exact opposite of what CNN presented it as being.

How did CNN end up aggressively hyping such a spectacularly false story? They refuse to say. Many hours after their story got exposed as false, the journalist who originally presented it, congressional reporter Manu Raju, finally posted a tweet noting the correction. CNN’s P.R. department then claimed that “multiple sources” had provided CNN with the false date. And Raju went on CNN, in muted tones, to note the correction, explicitly claiming that “two sources” had each given him the false date on the email, while also making clear that CNN did not ever even see the email, but only had sources describe its purported contents:

All of this prompts the glaring, obvious, and critical question — one that CNN refuses to address: How did “multiple sources” all misread the date on this document, in exactly the same way and toward the same end, and then feed this false information to CNN?

It is, of course, completely plausible that one source might innocently misread a date on a document. But how is it remotely plausible that multiple sources could all innocently and in good faith misread the date in exactly the same way, all to cause the dissemination of a blockbuster revelation about Trump-Russia-WikiLeaks collusion? This is the critical question that CNN simply refuses to answer. In other words, CNN refuses to provide the most minimal transparency to enable the public to understand what happened here.

Why does this matter so much? For so many significant reasons:

To begin with, it’s hard to overstate how fast, far, and wide this false story traveled. Democratic Party pundits, operatives, and journalists with huge social media platforms predictably jumped on the story immediately, announcing that it proved collusion between Trump and Russia (through WikiLeaks). One tweet from Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu, claiming that this proved evidence of criminal collusion, was retweeted thousands and thousands of times in just a few hours (Lieu quietly deleted the tweet after I noted its falsity, and long after it went very viral, without ever telling his followers that the CNN story, and therefore his accusation, had been debunked).

This tweet is from a member of Congress today. It was RT'd more than 7,000 times (and counting), and liked more than 15,000 times. It's based on a completely false claim, from a debunked CNN story. This happens over and over. This seems damaging. And still no retraction. https://t.co/fixSRKUxxx

Brookings Institution’s Benjamin Wittes, whose star has risen as he has promoted himself as a friend of former FBI Director Jim Comey, not only promoted the CNN story in the morning, but did so with the word “boom” — which he uses to signal that a major blow has been delivered to Trump on the Russia story — along with a GIF of a cannon being detonated:

Incredibly, to this very moment — almost 24 hours after CNN’s story was debunked — Wittes has never noted to his more than 200,000 followers that the story he so excitedly promoted turned out to be utterly false, even though he returned to Twitter long after the story was debunked to tweet about other matters. He just left his false and inflammatory claims uncorrected.

Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall believed the story was so significant that he used an image of an atomic bomb detonating at the top of his article discussing its implications, an article he tweeted to his roughly 250,000 followers. Only at night was an editor’s note finally added noting that the whole thing was false.

It’s hard to quantify exactly how many people were deceived — filled with false news and propaganda — by the CNN story. But thanks to Democratic-loyal journalists and operatives who decree every Trump-Russia claim to be true without seeing any evidence, it’s certainly safe to say that many hundreds of thousands of people, almost certainly millions, were exposed to these false claims.

Surely anyone who has any minimal concerns about journalistic accuracy — which would presumably include all the people who have spent the last year lamenting Fake News, propaganda, Twitter bots, and the like — would demand an accounting as to how a major U.S. media outlet ended up filling so many people’s brains with totally false news. That alone should prompt demands from CNN for an explanation about what happened here. No Russian Facebook ad or Twitter bot could possibly have anywhere near the impact as this CNN story had when it comes to deceiving people with blatantly inaccurate information.

Second, the “multiple sources” who fed CNN this false information did not confine themselves to that network. They were apparently very busy eagerly spreading the false information to as many media outlets as they could find. In the middle of the day, CBS News claimed that it had independently “confirmed” CNN’s story about the email and published its own breathless article discussing the grave implications of this discovered collusion.

Most embarrassing of all was what MSNBC did. You just have to watch this report from its “intelligence and national security correspondent” Ken Dilanian to believe it. Like CBS, Dilanian also claimed that he had independently “confirmed” the false CNN report from “two sources with direct knowledge of this.” Dilanian, whose career in the U.S. media continues to flourish the more he is exposed as someone who faithfully parrots what the CIA tells him to say (since that is one of the most coveted and valued attributes in U.S. journalism), spent three minutes mixing evidence-free CIA claims as fact with totally false assertions about what his multiple “sources with direct knowledge” told him about all this. Please watch this — again, not just the content but the tenor and tone of how they “report” — as it is Baghdad Bob-level embarrassing:

Think about what this means. It means that at least two — and possibly more — sources, which these media outlets all assessed as credible in terms of having access to sensitive information, all fed the same false information to multiple news outlets at the same time. For multiple reasons, the probability is very high that these sources were Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee (or their high-level staff members), which is the committee that obtained access to Trump Jr.’s emails, although it’s certainly possible that it’s someone else. We won’t know until these news outlets deign to report this crucial information to the public: Which “multiple sources” acted jointly to disseminate incredibly inflammatory, false information to the nation’s largest news outlets?

Just last week, the Washington Post decided — to great applause (including mine) — to expose a source to whom they had promised anonymity and off-the-record protections because they discovered that she was purposely feeding them false information as part of a scheme by Project Veritas to discredit the Post. It’s a well-established principle of journalism — one that is rarely followed when it comes to powerful people in D.C. — that journalists should expose, rather than protect and conceal, sources who purposely feed them false information to be disseminated to the public.

The Post made the right call to report off-the-record comments given they were offered with fraudulent intent. This should be done far more often to actually powerful-in-DC people who spread lies while hiding behind anonymity https://t.co/EFLEI4eaq8pic.twitter.com/v6yIJvheT1

Is that what happened here? Did these “multiple sources” who fed not just CNN, but also MSNBC and CBS completely false information do so deliberately and in bad faith? Until these news outlets provide an accounting of what happened — what one might call “minimal journalistic transparency” — it’s impossible to say for certain. But right now, it’s very difficult to imagine a scenario in which multiple sources all fed the wrong date to multiple media outlets innocently and in good faith.

If this were, in fact, a deliberate attempt to cause a false and highly inflammatory story to be reported, then these media outlets have an obligation to expose who the culprits are — just as the Washington Post did last week to the woman making false claims about Roy Moore (it was much easier in that case because the source they exposed was a nobody in D.C., rather than someone on whom they rely for a steady stream of stories, the way CNN and MSNBC rely on Democratic members of the Intelligence Committee). By contrast, if this were just an innocent mistake, then these media outlets should explain how such an implausible sequence of events could possibly have happened.

Thus far, these media corporations are doing the opposite of what journalists ought to do: Rather than informing the public about what happened and providing minimal transparency and accountability for themselves and the high-level officials who caused this to happen, they are hiding behind meaningless, obfuscating statements crafted by P.R. executives and lawyers.

How can journalists and news outlets so flamboyantly act offended when they’re attacked as being “Fake News” when this is the conduct behind which they hide when they get caught disseminating incredibly consequential false stories?

The more serious you think the Trump-Russia story is, the more dangerous you think it is when Trump attacks the U.S. media as “Fake News,” the more you should be disturbed by what happened here, the more transparency and accountability you should be demanding. If you’re someone who thinks Trump’s attacks on the media are dangerous, then you should be first in line objecting when they act recklessly and demand transparency and accountability from them. It is debacles like this — and the subsequent corporate efforts to obfuscate — that have made the U.S. media so disliked and that fuel and empower Trump’s attacks on them.

All media outlets, of course, will make mistakes. The Intercept certainly has made our share, as have all outlets. And it’s particularly natural, inevitable, for mistakes to be made on a highly complicated, opaque story like the question of the relationship between Trump and the Russians, and questions relating to how WikiLeaks obtained the DNC and Podesta emails. That is all to be expected.

But what one should expect with journalistic “mistakes” is that they sometimes go in one direction and other times go in the other direction. That’s exactly what has not happened here. Virtually every false story published goes only in one direction: to be as inflammatory and damaging as possible on the Trump-Russia story and about Russia particularly. At some point, once “mistakes” all start going in the same direction, toward advancing the same agenda, they cease looking like mistakes.

No matter your views on those political controversies, no matter how much you hate Trump or regard Russia as a grave villain and threat to our cherished democracy and freedoms, it has to be acknowledged that when the U.S. media is spewing constant false news about all of this, that, too, is a grave threat to our democracy and cherished freedom.

So numerous are the false stories about Russia and Trump over the last year that I literally cannot list them all. Just consider the ones from the last week alone, as enumerated by the New York Times yesterday in its news report on CNN’s embarrassment:

It was also yet another prominent reporting error at a time when news organizations are confronting a skeptical public, and a president who delights in attacking the media as “fake news.”

Last Saturday, ABC News suspended a star reporter, Brian Ross, after an inaccurate report that Donald Trump had instructed Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, to contact Russian officials during the presidential race.

The report fueled theories about coordination between the Trump campaign and a foreign power, and stocks dropped after the news. In fact, Mr. Trump’s instruction to Mr. Flynn came after he was president-elect.

Several news outlets, including Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, also inaccurately reported this week that Deutsche Bank had received a subpoena from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, for President Trump’s financial records.

The president and his circle have not been shy about pointing out the errors.

That’s just the last week alone. Let’s just remind ourselves of how many times major media outlets have made humiliating, breathtaking errors on the Trump-Russia story, always in the same direction, toward the same political goals. Here is just a sample of incredibly inflammatory claims that traveled all over the internet before having to be corrected, walked back, or retracted — often long after the initial false claims spread, and where the corrections receive only a tiny fraction of the attention with which the initial false stories are lavished:

Russia hacked into the U.S. electric grid to deprive Americans of heat during winter (WashPost)

An anonymous group (PropOrNot) documented how major U.S. political sites are Kremlin agents (WashPost)

Links have been found between Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci and a Russian investment fund under investigation (CNN)

That really is just a small sample. So continually awful and misleading has this reporting been that even Vladimir Putin’s most devoted critics — such as Russian expatriate Masha Gessen, oppositional Russian journalists, and anti-Kremlin liberal activists in Moscow — are constantly warning that the U.S. media’s unhinged, ignorant, paranoid reporting on Russia is harming their cause in all sorts of ways, in the process destroying the credibility of the U.S. media in the eyes of Putin’s opposition (who — unlike Americans who have been fed a steady news and entertainment propaganda diet for decades about Russia — actually understand the realities of that country).

U.S. media outlets are very good at demanding respect. They love to imply, if not outright state, that being patriotic and a good American means that one must reject efforts to discredit them and their reporting because that’s how one defends press freedom.

But journalists also have the responsibility not just to demand respect and credibility but to earn it. That means that there shouldn’t be such a long list of abject humiliations, in which completely false stories are published to plaudits, traffic, and other rewards, only to fall apart upon minimal scrutiny. It certainly means that all of these “errors” shouldn’t be pointing in the same direction, pushing the same political outcome or journalistic conclusion.

But what it means most of all is that when media outlets are responsible for such grave and consequential errors as the spectacle we witnessed yesterday, they have to take responsibility for it by offering transparency and accountability. In this case, that can’t mean hiding behind P.R. and lawyer silence and waiting for this to just all blow away.

At minimum, these networks — CNN, MSNBC, and CBS — have to either identify who purposely fed them this blatantly false information or explain how it’s possible that “multiple sources” all got the same information wrong in innocence and good faith. Until they do that, their cries and protests the next time they’re attacked as “Fake News” should fall on deaf ears, since the real author of those attacks — the reason those attacks resonate — is themselves and their own conduct.

Update: Dec. 9, 2017Hours after this article was published on Saturday — a full day and a half after his original tweets promoting the false CNN story with a “boom” and a cannon — Benjamin Wittes finally got around to noting that the CNN story he hyped has “serious problems”; needless to say, that acknowledgment received a fraction of retweets from his followers as his original tweets hyping the story attracted.

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After reading this today, I’m inclined to give The Intercept another chance. I was put off months ago because of some articles that were clearly liberal biased. And, we’re borderline propaganda, which Glen decries in this article, yet, get passed the smell test? Hopefully, they can themselves be self-aware and maintain journalistic integrity.

Scuttlebutt is that DOJ’s Intel Leak Task Force fed the false date info only to Adam Schiff, thus exposing Schiff as a Felonious leaker of classified info. Now Schiff is extremely angry and panicked, causing his a Tweetstorm the next day.

I’m a little late to the comments section but I keep wondering….does the press actually believe Russia is doing all of this stuff or are they purposely hyping it just to see what sticks with it’s readers or listeners because they hate Trump so much??? I mean they can’t REALLY believe Russia is behind everything…..right??? I’m seriously bewildered.

This is a wart on the side of the insanity that is the “Russia” investigation.

The Press and our Entertainers are throwing the biggest temper tantrum in history to explain why the deplorable voters did not elect Hillary. First it was Electoral College, then “Russians”. So far, they are accused of taking out ads on Facebook, and conversing with the Trump organization, that has real estate interests in Moscow about …

The Elephant in the Room is our Press, which is supposed to inform, instead being the fanatical support for a political party but calling it “news”. The reporters and editors are protected under the First Amendment of “Free Speech”, but also under “Freedom of the Press” which protects them from punishment from any political organization.

The networks mentioned in Glenns piece had lost any remaining credibility with the beating of the drums for Iraq wars 1 and 2, Judith Miller, shilling for the transfer of wealth called ¨supply side economics¨ since 1982, giving Donald Trump 5 bil worth of free campaign advertising, getting their butts kicked by Fox News, the selection of GW Bush, among others. At this point, anyone who can string a coherent sentence together: i.e Barack Obama, Glenn Greenwald despite questionable allegiances such as corporations and Russian spookmasters, is a relief when considering such comments as “I am the decider¨and ¨Grab em by the pussy¨ As the alternative.

If only trumpettes would spend thus much research on even one of trumps 1600+ lies. And you wouldn’t even have to lie or accuse any sources as being biased. Just read what he says and if you believe anything you are in need of help.

Why do you assume this would be from Democrats? It is far, far more likely that it came from Republicans on the intelligence committee, because it had exactly the effect that Republicans would want, and the opposite of what Democrats would want. Unmasking the sources wouldn’t help the news organizations because those sources would deny that they were the sources and with the news organizations reputation in tatters already it makes them look even worse – it becomes a double smear job. So they silently suffer instead.

To Bjorn Jensen if you’re still checking in here. I checked out your vaunted empty wheel site, and found it great if you like a bunch of CrowdStrike/DNC Trump-Russia propaganda whose boards are populated by a bunch of smug pseudo-intellectual types drunk on their own smugness. Got any other obvious Trump-hating sites sponsored by deep-state toadies like Marcy? I sure could use the entertainment.

This was a common ploy by Goebbels to destroy faith in all news other than the official party doctine. They would plant false stories and then accuse the ones who report the faked tales of lieing to the public. This makes the state more official than its watchdogs.
The admin did this early in the drive for war in Iraq when they planted a tale that brought down Dan Rather. They tried it with a faked plant trying to get The POst to bite on a Moore victim but were caught. Now they harp on the incorrect Suboena story to distract and discredit a paper that is also reporting on the criminality of Trumps cabinet and advisors or Trumps’ financial crimes by equating them with russian propaganda to divide our nation into factionaism.
We overlook the drive to war, the wealthy stealing more of the nation’s wealth, the destruction of democracy with plutocratic spending and gerrymandered public servants picking their own voters,selling the public airwaves and internet to the few favored crony billionaires.
So let’s all blame the independent press and rely on an official sanctioned news like they have in N. Korea or had in Germany and Stalinist Russia or current Saudi and Irani state approved media.

So max, all these fraudulent Trump-Russia stories that the Intercept has been commenting on, “Putin hacked the Power Grid” “Russia Hacked the French Election” “Wikileaks Tipped Off Trump Jr.” and so forth… all these were actually planted stories meant to discredit the media, rather than just the media rushing out poorly-checked stories in its haste to bash Trump? Wow that’s a lot of stories they’ve planted then! These Trump planters must be busy people with amazing skills! Thanks for the heads-up.

Reminds me that the Fake Newsies are still pushing the fiction that Geo. W. Bush was an officer (only completed enlisted basic training, never attended officers’ training) and a pilot (never attended USAF Flight School).

Not to mention that not too long ago, when Carol Costello was still with CNN, she falsely reported on a web site which a few days before had long been involved in selling magic crystals, and overnight magically became a high-tech georesource site — passing on their report that advanced former Sov tech revealed that the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH270 was sunk in the Indian Ocean.

Trump has branded CNN as “Very Fake News” and, by gosh and by golly, they have lived up to the moniker. But as cute and amusing as that may be, there is clearly something far more sinister at work here given the depth, duration, and consistency of purpose of these outright falsehoods.

This is psyops. And it is coordinated. And the target is the American people. Now, the fact that the topic material is changing/flipping from day to day– Trump, Russia, Election, WikiLeaks, Don Jr, Flynn, etc., etc. is simply providing content for the op. I cannot see this in any other way given the very well presented facts that Glenn has laid out for us.

Which brings us to who is doing this. I don’t much care why because that is less interesting and there will be mixed motivations. WHO? This requires going much deeper than what we see in front of us and is the primary question of interest here. The answer won’t be CNN or more media networks or a reporter here or there. There is way too much of this. We need to get to the root source and name some names.

Right, I don’t vote for these corrupt parties at all. I don’t trust news any more, I basically don’t watch the news from tv since last election. I prefer to read the news from WilkiLeak, please support WikeLeak by donating to the real news organization.

While the bias is now so blatant there is no longer even a pretense at objectivity, the media is coming off as stupid and incompetent as well. Each time they breathlessly promote a story that turns out to be false, they show themselves as unprofessional hacks. In their tiny echo chamber, one can imagine them exchanging high fives until the story is proved false. They then console each other with the happy thought that they’ll get Trump next time.

“The paradox of the Trump presidency is that for all the dangers it poses to democratic institutions, nothing has emboldened and strengthened all these other institutions more than Trump” — Glenn Greenwald

That appears to be a legitimate quote. Greenwald seems to be two people, one of whom is an idiot.

Trump has only furthered the corruption of corporatism, militarism, imperialism and abusive policing (inclusive of unethical surveillance) that Bush and Obama also entrenched immovably. Resistance to the continued deterioration of liberty has been entirely theatrical and impotent.

Yeah, I’m sure Hillary would have stopped the FCC. The Democrats really put up a fight against the Republicans. The Republicans may be stealing our democracy, but the Democrats are driving the getaway car.

Sillyputy (your name does you justice, nonsensical and easily malleable),appointing someone to a commission, as wrong as it might have been, does not negate the fact that Obama established the pro-net neutrality rules to begin with and constantly defended net neutrality.

How far are you willing to let the country slide before you admit you made a horrible mistake?

You and Sillyputty can console yourself with that fact while you’re purchasing your ‘extra-premium’ bundles of content.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: There are no gatekeepers deciding which sites you get to access. There are no toll roads on the information superhighway. This set of principles, the idea of net neutrality, has unleashed the power of the Internet and given innovators the chance to thrive. Abandoning these principles would threaten to end the Internet as we know it.

Your hero only came to that conclusion after he was given a torrent of shit for trying to end net neutrality. Were you one of those chastising him at the time for that, or were you dutifully defending him?

The implication that U.S “main stream media” reports what the NSA/CIA wants them to report, nothing more or less, may very well be true. However, an alternative possibility is a form of mass hysteria. Paul Simon identified a fundamental truth: “Still, a man hears what he wants to hear. And disregards the rest.” The original source read Sep 4 rather than 14 because that’s what he wanted to read. The multiple other sources believed this because that’s what they wanted to hear. CNN, etc. followed suit . . .

The thing that baffles me is that people actually fall for this kind of thing… not just once, but over and over again. I mean if someone tells you bull crap over and over again in real life, how many times are you going to let that person BS you before you stop believing them?

The answer in the US is as long as I hate (insert hated group here) I’ll believe whatever bad stuff I hear about them… even if it means that the people feeding me the lies are picking my pocket.

All they had to do to ensure they did not rush to judgement on this one was to do a little leg work to determine the background of the email sender.

They would have quickly determined that it was just another citizen that had nothing to do with the Washington elite. That knowledge would have caused them to hold the story until it could be verified independently.

The CNN reporters, offspring of the Keystone cops, keep doing it to themselves. How many times must they be burned until they change the internal quality control system designed to prevent this ttype of reporting from happening.

One of the biggest and most effective lies the Progressive Left ever sold to the public at large is the idea that a neutral media is possible. It isn’t. No such thing ever existed, anywhere. All news media have always had assorted biases, and smart people knew this.

By selling the idea that unbiased news was possible, the Liberal establishment diverts attention from “Yes, of course they are biased; this is what they are lying to you about” to “Are they biased?.”. It may not seem like a big shift, but it has worked for them for decades. Fox news fell for it completely; instead of “We report, you decide” it should have been “You know their side, here’s ours”.

C.S.P. – there is a big difference between “we’re an openly biased news source!” and “we know all people are biased, but we’re trying to be as neutral as possible in our coverage”.

In other words, the fact that it is impossible to eliminate the impact of individual bias on reportage does not necessitate a conclusion that all attempts to minimize bias should be thrown out the window.

The Liberal media has its flaws – inherent bias being one of them – but anyone working for a big network would laugh you out of town if you suggested that they openly celebrate and/or pursue a left-wing agenda.

Agreed, thankfully, there’s plenty of good muscular coverage being done by the “corporatee media’ on Trump. Meanwhile, The Intercept has been woefully late to the game under Greenwald’s leadership in aggressively covering the most shameful adminstration in recent history, and now they are playing catch up.

Mr. Greenwald, my list of people I trust to report the news has grown very short. On the other hand I appreciate your reporting and I trust you to give a non-political and accurate insight.
Thanks for all that you do to inform people searching out facts and the truth.

Respect to you, sir, for bravely standing up for truth and sanity. Brave, because there is an irrational fuming rage among hillary diehards at anybody who queries the big ‘russia-is-to-blame-for-our-defeat’ narrative.

What fuels their abuse is recognition that you are a clear-eyed man among children and that they are embarrassing themselves and their spurious centrist cause.

Sadly they have gone so far down the rabbit hole they will never let go and retreat to reality. It’s vital, therefore, that you continue your courageous work in calling them out. It is valued by everybody who despairs at their antics.

I’ve read most of the comments and replies, I say John Anderson wins. Yes TI interview Mona about Reality Winner. Seriously though; nobody has mentioned Glenn’s demand for cnn msnbc and cbs to out the culprit(s). What are y’all watchin Fox news all night or what? These comments mostly suck.

If anyone ever wants to know why Donald Trump won, you just have to watch CNN for your answer. Average Americans hold national mainstream media outlets in contempt, justifiably so, and when they frantically tried to crush Trumps’s insurgent candidacy, it only garnered him more sympathy and support.

After all, who doesn’t want to issue a big “fuck you” to these contemptible, smarmy, self-righteous actors who portray journalists on the accurately-described “fake news” outlets?

Personally, after a long deliberation, I chose to cast a vote for Jill Stein as the least-bad of the four candidates I had to choose from. But even I, I’ll admit, felt a bit of glee in seeing the anointed-one (Hillary) lose in such embarrassing fashion to the reality tv star. Similarly, with amusement I witnessed the Corporate Left collectively lose their shit in response to this upset.

The Democratic Party needs to think long and hard about how and why many of their spokesmen became so reviled that they were vulnerable to this sort of right-wing revolt.

Unfortunately, as Greenwald has so admirably documented, they show no signs of reassessing their strategy or reforming their party. Instead, they’re doubling down on “fake news” regarding the phony Russian collusion narrative.

They’re throwing every random, unsubstantiated accusation against Trump they can muster, whether there is any evidence to back it up or not, hoping some of it sticks. They’re testing the waters to see what they could conceivably impeach Trump for, but they are (further) destroying their own credibility in the process.

I’d support impeaching Trump, albeit for very different reasons. The most egregious and impeachable offenses Trump has committed have ironically been the things that the radical mainstream in Washington overwhelmingly support. Remember Chris Matthews gushing about how Trump “became Presidential” when he was illegally dropping bombs in Syria and dropped the Mother of all Bombs (MOAB) in Afghanistan?

How long can they run with this Russian Collusion narrative? Are Democrats honestly going to ride this phony story through the 2020 election cycle? If they do, they’ll only further destroy their own credibility.

It’s a comfortable narrative you tell yourself and so do most of Glenn’s hardcore supporters but a completely false one nonetheless . You absurdly want to blame CNN and the corporate left for Trump. There’s a much more scary scenario, 1) the aging whites have swerved radically to the right, egged on by Trump”s racist dog whistles and skillful Russian propaganda, and the natural conservatism that comes from aging and from realizing that you are no longer the majority. 2)) you are to blame, and most “progressives” who decided to sit this one out.

Ok, sure. You sound like a progressive parroting all the progressive talking points; old white people, Russian collusion, Trumps a racist, people stayed home instead of voting, blah, blah blah. The only fact you got half right is that as people age, they become more conservative. Which is true, but only because the reality sunk in that they were so stupid for so long and realized big government will never solve anything and that personal liberty means everything. Plus they’re tired of the government draining their retirement savings.

First of all I don’t think that Russian propaganda, to the extent that it existed at all, played any significant role in changing voters minds. This is a false construct that Democrat loyalists tell themselves to escape blame for losing the election.

I’m not trying to assign all blame for Trump’s victory to CNN and the Corporate Left, but you shouldn’t deny the obvious revolt against the excesses of Democratic Party politics, the corporate media and, in particular, identity politics and political correctness.

The Alt-right “race realists” and white nationalists are a very small minority of Trump voters. Trump garnered a significant percentage of voters who have voted for Democrats in the past, including Barack Obama.

Listen, there was no way I was ever going to vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. If I chose to vote at all, my decision came down to Jill Stein or Gary Johnson. I am a libertarian, so my natural inclination would be to vote for a libertarian candidate. Unfortunately, Gary’s campaign was embarrassing and awful. He was mealy-mouthed and inarticulate. His VP choice Bill Weld, is an absolute disaster who seemed to be almost campaigning for Hillary Clinton while ostensibly running against her! He is no libertarian, not in even the broadest sense.

I chose Jill Stein because, although I strongly disagree with her on economic and (many) domestic issues, she was terrific on foreign policy. She was the most anti-war candidate who ran, and she clearly saw the danger in demonizing Russia and escalating tensions between two nuclear superpowers.

Your insinuation when blaming me, and Progressives who didn’t vote for Hillary, for Trump’s election implies that Hillary would have been so much better than Donald Trump. I don’t buy this. We cannot know a counter-factual, but Hillary has an abysmal multi-decade public record that is simply indefensible.

She’s a Corporatist and a Military Hawk. She enthusiastically supported the War in Iraq in 2003 and didn’t walk that back until she was challenged by Barack Obama in 2008. She supported her husband’s ruthless sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s, the same that caused the death of 500,000 women and children. She is responsible more than anyone else, for the decision to oust Gaddafi from power in Libya and overthrow his regime. She supported Obama’s policy of helping Saudi Arabia starve and destroy Yemen, which Trump is now escalating. Her policies are responsible for the proliferation of ISIS and the refugee crisis that is causing so much social unrest throughout Europe.

In most cases, you’d call a person with this much blood on their hands a mass murderer. She was simply an unacceptable choice by any rational moral standard.

You say your not trying to assign all the blame, and yet your opening sentence is:

“If anyone ever wants to know why Donald Trump won, you just have to watch CNN for your answer. “

You’re part of the feeding frenzy on this page against the media which comes right out of the Donald Trump playbook. Essentially ‘progressives”have coopted the fake news narrative from the Donald, a shameful legacy and a dangerous strategy. I am not saying there are not excesses that need to call out vigorously, but if you reading some comments below you might as well be on Breitbart. Until Glenn calls this out, he is complicit.

I’m not “against the media”, I’m observing the obvious fact that certain news outlets are promoting blatant falsehoods and are actively lending credibility to Donald Trump and his supporters claims about “fake news”.

I’d love to have a credible, adversarial news media that critiques the Trump Administration, and all presidential administrations for that matter, on legitimate grounds. The last thing an opponent of Donald Trump should want is to constantly prove the right-wing claims about “fake news” correct through debacles and embarrassments such as those documented by Glenn.

There are plenty of liberal and even conservative alternative news outlets that have journalistic standards, are non-partisan, and have levied legitimate criticisms against Donald Trump.

It is possible to be both deeply opposed to Trump and his agenda, while at the same time recognizing that CNN, MSNBC, and most of the mainstream media are in fact “fake news” and serve as uncritical mouthpieces of the CIA and Deep State.

One of the primary reasons that Donald Trump was successful in his presidential campaign was because his attacks against a dishonest press had resonance. It resonated because it was and is true.

It seems like partisanship is blinding you to a more nuanced analysis. There are so many issues that the press ought to be attacking Trump on, yet the ones they choose to focus on are those with no merit.

I’m disturbed that you insist on using the collocation “fake news.’ There’s plenty of good muscular coverag being done by the “corporatee media’ on Trump. As a matter of fact The Intercept has been woefully late to the game under Greenwald’s leadership, and now they are playing catch up. As far as I can tell they have not broken one story of subrtance in what might be the most corrupt adminstration in recent memeory. Shameful. And mind you, the Russia story is not only about collusion. There are legitimate leads that point to the Kremlin having targeted Trump as an asset for the last thirty years, and that he might be compromised due to dirty money he might have been “loaned’ by Russian kleptocrats and Deutchebank. Read Luke Harding.

Also be careful when using Deep State. It’s a fuzzy word whose meaning changes according to the user, and thus is very dangerous. As far as I can tell, Greenwald is the only one who uses the term without quotation marks, as do you. I think Orwell would be horrified.

Lastly, don’t buy Greenwalds journalism as gospel. His worldview means he sees the Russia and Fox as distractions in his crusade against the corrupt Democratic Party. This explains the shorttshrift he gives in covering the two.

I don’t take Greenwald’s journalism as gospel either, I just consider his work to be far more reliable, and his judgment sounder, than most. He has a track record of sticking to his principles and not being swayed by the partisan politics of the moment through the Bush, Obama and now Trump administrations.

I’m a libertarian so I don’t agree with Greenwald on everything and I agree with other Intercept authors even less. Yet, I find it odd that you think The Intercept has held back on its criticisms of Trump. I don’t find this to be the case at all.

Suppose for a minute that the Russian government was using Trump as an “asset”. What do you think their goals are? What would they have to gain by having this ignorant buffoon in the White House?

On the other hand, an unholy alliance between Bush-era neo-cons, bitter pro-Hilary DNC partisans, the military industrial complex and the intelligence agencies have a clear agenda in reigniting a new Cold War in order to sell more weapons and justify more wars.

The claims against Trump vis a vis Russia are a never-ending, constantly-shifting collection of assertions which have, one after another, been debunked. When his critics fail to prove one accusation, they move the goal-posts and retreat towards abstractions.

I’d recommend you check out a group called “Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity”, made up of ex-CIA and intelligence experts who view the new-Cold War agenda in Washington as incredibly dangerous.

They recently completed a detailed investigation into the claims of Russian “hacking” of the DNC:

“Forensic studies of “Russian hacking” into Democratic National Committee computers last year reveal that on July 5, 2016, data was leaked (not hacked) by a person with physical access to DNC computers, and then doctored to incriminate Russia.

After examining metadata from the “Guccifer 2.0” July 5, 2016 intrusion into the DNC server, independent cyber investigators have concluded that an insider copied DNC data onto an external storage device, and that “telltale signs” implicating Russia were then inserted.

Key among the findings of the independent forensic investigations is the conclusion that the DNC data was copied onto a storage device at a speed that far exceeds an Internet capability for a remote hack. Of equal importance, the forensics show that the copying and doctoring were performed on the East coast of the U.S.”

I’ll leave it there, except to comment briefly on the term “Deep State”. I don’t think this word is imprecise at all. It simply describes the permanent bureaucracy in Washington that is unelected yet wields great power. Usually it is referencing intelligence agencies like the CIA, FBI and NSA. It also usually includes the Military Industrial Complex. Sometimes people include the Federal Reserve and the large banks under the “Deep State” umbrella. The point is that overarching policy agendas are made and implemented regardless of which party is in power.

I said The Intercept was late to the game, not that they’re holding back on Trump (although you can argue that there’s a connection there). I do think they’ve started covering him more vigorously, although it’s almost always in a reactive capacity.

With respect to Russia, ask yourself why there’s an OBVIOUS coverup. Why have a shocking number of very high-level Trump officials perjured themselves comsistently. You can also argue, prima facie, that Trump’s firing of Comey was obstruction of justice, and thus impeachable. Mind you, I am not arguing for articles of impeachment, yet. I want a through investigation. You ask why does Russia want a buffoon in office? I don’t think it’s as simple as that. They apparently have been targeting him, along with inúmeros other assets, for years and they couldn’t know he would actually become president. But by God, has their bet paid off! Just witness the weakening of the European Union, NATO and the trashing of the TPP. Were it not for the shackles imposed by Congress, this would have been a home run for Russia.. Essentially all sanctions would have been lifted.

Mind you, I have NOT made up my mind regarding Trump and Russia. But I DO want a very thorough investigation. Interesting that this is Greenwald’s official position, but when pressed he points to a few interviews and Tweets to that effect. His readers, though (you included) get his ultimate message and have bought hook, line and sinker the ‘nothinburger’ narrative.

With respect to ‘Deep State’ You give it the most innocuous definition possible. Here is the definition according to Wikipedia,

“In the United States, the deep state is an alleged entity that coordinates efforts in secret by government employees and others to influence state policy without regard for democratically elected leadership.”

Greenwald uses the word in this sense, i.e., of an ‘entity’ whose members act in tandem and conspiratorially. As was mentioned, the Trumpsters think any conscientious objector in government who is against Trump would be a part of the ‘Deep State.’ Purges have started for less. Interesting that when some of us complained on these pages that, until Greenwald actually proves the existence of this ‘entity’, the term should not be used, they’ve started using quotation marks.

“What do you think their goals are? What would they have to gain by having this ignorant buffoon in the White House?”

Comey said it pretty clearly..”We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary (Hillary) Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump,” the report said, adding that intelligence agencies have “high confidence” in that assessment.”

“First of all I don’t think that Russian propaganda, to the extent that it existed at all, played any significant role in changing voters minds.”

For all of the thought you’ve seemingly given this topic, your first sentence isn’t rooted in reality. Not everyone is a partisan propagandist. Truth exists and, yes, even the mainstream media and powerful tech companies report it.

Also, with regard to Trump vs. Hillary, Hillary was qualified, Trump is not. Diplomacy is difficult but necessary. Politics are disgusting and awful—and every politician who has networked to the top is going to have some character flaws and dirt, to say the least.

Yes, Hillary. Exceptionally qualified for many jobs. I think her biggest accomplishment yet was gutting the DNCs cash reserves and handing that out to her buddies. Bah, who needs downballot cash anyways. IM WITH HER!

What evidence is there to the contrary? What specific piece of political propaganda was financed by the Russian government? And, why would you think that such propaganda made any substantial difference in changing voters minds?

A lot of research has gone into determining what factors influenced voters in Trump’s direction in the crucial swing-States. There is no sober assessment of the facts that concludes that the difference was Russian propaganda.

You’ll get no argument from me that Trump is temperamentally-unfit to be president. But Hillary would have been an unmitigated disaster as well. She would have conducted herself in a more “presidential” and dignified manner, no doubt. You think it would give the Muslim world some comfort knowing that the person ordering the murder of their family did so in a polite manner?

Why not think a few steps down the road? Where do you think this constant demonization of Russia and escalating tensions will lead? We haven’t gotten rid of our nuclear arsenals. A nuclear exchange is a genuine possibility if we are reckless in our rhetoric and actions.

I bought it the hype. Although did think the claim was suspect. Thanks for lowering the Greenwald boom.

So hoping you weigh in on Trump’s announcement about Israel. On Monday Chris Matthews had quite the closing on what a terrible decision it was. Even AM Joy Reid did segments on the decision and repercussions. On both Saturday and Sunday. This was unusual because she generally tip toe’s carefully around the I/P conflict.

There’s an intentional effort by the Establishment to feed false stories to the MSM. This reinforces in Trump supporters their rejection of information as fake news, and exposes the hypocrisy of Democrats, which only exacerbates divisions. Divide and conquer…

I would love to read an accurate expose of how news is delivered to the public in the US. Instead, yet again, we’re treated to paragraph after paragraph of excessive verbiage about one mistake by one MSM outlet while the constant barrage of lies and propaganda from the Right is ignored. And now I read that Greenwald has been on Ingraham and Hannity? Are you kidding? At this rate, we’ll soon be seeing references to The Deep State and The Duopoly. Yawn.

“I would love to read an accurate expose of how news is delivered to the public in the US.”

I suggest you actually read the article and a lot of others by Mr. Greenwald… if that is what you truly desire to see.. if you are just the concern-troll yo appear to be.. well, just fuck right of..OK? Al-righty then.

You’re right, the convergence is deepening. But it’s been there since at least last year with WikiLeaks/Assange backing Trump (and apparently Brexit in the UK). Usually this is put down to Clinton-hate. But that’s a total red herring, the links between Assange and the alt-right are all there to see in the plain light of day. So too the links between the Putin regime and the alt-right or far right. People like Greenwald are allowing themselves to be seriously compromised, presuming that they don’t actually support an alt-right agenda.

How about the US government’s support for Russian neo-nazi politician Eduard Limonov? Or Navalny, so beloved by the US govt co-sponsoring white supremacist marches in Moscow? Here is Navalny equating Muslims with cockroaches:
twitter.com/markamesexiled/status/846480870194188288

In the interest of transparency, I think it valuable to examine the Glenn Greenwald worldview. It helps us understand why he selects the stories he does and is so disinterested in the excesses of the Trump administration and those of Fox News and Breitbart, to the point that he has become almost a hero to many in those constituencies (just scroll below for evidence).

I apologize if I’m stating the obvious (and Glenn please feel free to correct me where I’m wrong), but I believe these are the basic tenets he believes:

• American hegemony is an evil unto itself

• The Democratic party is corrupt and has been hijacked by the Neocons

• The Neocons lurk in the recesses of the Trump administration looking for an opportunity to do him in, they are part of the Deep State (BTW, unlike others in TI, Glenn chooses to not use quotation marks when referring to Deep State, meaning it is a catchphrase that encompasses everyone from Obama leftovers to Neo cons, and other boogeymen du jour).

• Trump and Putin, as evil as they might be, will help weaken both US hegemony and the Democratic Party. In that sense they are useful.

• Fox as heinous as it might be, is a counterweight to the Democratic bias in the media. In that sense it is useful.

• Similarly, the Russian investigation will only distract from the faults of the Democrats, in that sense it is of little interest.

Again, I might be stating the obvious, if so I apologize, but it helps add clarity to the stories he chooses to cover and those he ignores.

I have no problem with you appearing on Ingraham or Hannity’s show, if as you did last night, you not only talk about the topic you were invited to speak about, but also point out either your host’s or their networks complicity in catapulting bullshit.

I know she invited you to point out where she’s been wrong or spreading disinformation, and I’d add engaging in flagrant partisan propaganda and fear-mongering. Here’s some examples just from her Twitter feed:

For Dems, the party of Ted Kennedy & Bill Clinton, this sexual misconduct crusade has never been about protecting women–it’s been about getting their power back. Now that Mueller’s impeachment report is tainted, economy booming, Dems needed more chum in water.

Another:

Port Authority bomber came in bc he was a “nephew” of someone who came in thru Visa Lottery. Complete insanity—roulette wheel of death & destruction.

Another:

Ingraham: “What we are seeing here is a pattern and practice of Mueller hiring known Clinton and Obama political insiders and boosters, supporters, to undo a presidential election. That was the election of Donald #Trump.” #IngrahamAngle

Another:

Obama’s Apology Tour never ended. His version of U.S “leadership”? Benghazi, hostility to Israel, telling Medvedev he’d be more “flexible,” letting China run away with it.

Another:

If only the Dems were as excited abt growing the American economy & protecting American workers as they are abt Flynn’s indictment.

As a factual matter the economy, since FDR, is historically and demonstrably better under Democratic party governance and when in the FUCK has the GOP in modern times every done a single solitary thing to “protect American workers”. Nothing is what, and that’s demonstrable as a function of all the non-legislation and blocking of legislation that actually protects workers.

If Trump has no impact on the economy, then why did news about Michael Flynn cause markets to fall? That would seem to indicate that investors have faith in POTUS, and want him to stay in charge.

That one is just flat out illogical and irrational.

I could go on but getting boring even reading the idiotic nonsense on Ingraham’s Twitter feed.

A good part of major U.S. Journalism has been propaganda for years. Now they just get caught. For those Democratic Party apologists, facts like this mean as little as they do to Republican Party apologists. Mirrors of each other and they all think they are brilliant…

They’ll sit by the fire, and presume to know
What’s done i’the Capitol: who’s like to rise,
Who thrives, and who declines: side factions, and give out
Conjectural marriages; making parties strong,
And feebling such as stand not in their liking,
Below their cobbled shoes.

There’s nothing in the Constitution that provides for a failed candidate to be installed, no matter what happened in the election. The most that can happen is to replace Trump with Pence, and that would be TRULY STUPID. Trump, at least, is incompetent enough to step on his own dick on a regular basis while Pence would guide the Republicans through to even WORSE destinations.

As for the language stuff, gawd, how can the USA produce people so dumb as to think, much less say that shit?

We do have good examples in history. Think of the Bourbon Restoration in France. There was nothing in the French Constitution to allow for that but they did it anyway and look at the nice French Republic we have today.

So, absolutely. The Clintons MUST be restored. The White House is where they belong.

So what’s the difference between, say, the Russia inquiry hypothetically discovering that there really was collusion between the Russian state and Trump at various levels, and the Republican party and media basically responding with ‘so what?’ – which seems to be where the US political ‘Overton window’ is heading, and the same inquiry already unearthing secret cooperation WikiLeaks and Trump Junior to assist the Trump campaign, and some of the leftwing/liberal alternative media (like here, Glenn Greenwald) basically shrugging and going ‘so what’?

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I don’t think there are many true journalists left today. If they are just giving their opinion or relating the opinions they are told they have by management that doesn’t make them a journalist. It just seems they can’t get past nitpicking and name calling. PROUD OF YOU! GOOD ARTICLE!

As the guy in this video says…’ this goes to the heart of the Russia-Trump collusion investigation’…..’why didn’t they contact the FBI as soon as they got the decryption keys ?’
Senior MSM investigative journalism @ work….. next time please look at the date on the devastating e-mail before breaking the news.

Glenn, your rage is misdirected. Where the country really needs transparency from is President Trump and his team. I applaud the NYT’s, CNN, WAPO..for their work in uncovering the truth in this matter and acknowledging, apologizing, and correcting their mistakes. President Trump is doing enough to unjustly undermine the media without you piling on with this hyperbole.

These Main Stream Media outlets do NOT uncover the truth we really need uncovered, and they don’t acknowledge, apologize or correct any mistakes that really matter. The media has undermined itself for decades. It all started to change in roughly 1980… You, apparently, aren’t old enough to know how things used to be back when media, while still very biased and full of propaganda and even lies, was a least a hell of a lot better than it is today.

I’m 62. I stand by my statement.
I, too, don’t like it when the media makes mistakes, but the criticism is too harsh. I do not think MSM is the enemy of the people, like Trump does.
President Trump lies so much we need people out there verifying what he says.

A functioning media is vital to the interests of The People, but we don’t have a functioning media which serves the interest of the people. Face it, investigative journalism is dead. NOTHING like it was in the 1970s, for example.

It’s apparent to me that for whatever reason you’re blind to the world as it is today, and, in particular, to the situation with main stream media in the USA. … Rather than repeat myself too much, I suggest you seek out my comments below about a dialogue with my father as he once believed much as you do.

please tell me that you are attempting at being clever, even sarcastic. Or perhaps you are upset because of all the money you wasted on your election night party to celebrate the upcoming coronation of hillary. Maybe the flight you booked for that day in DC, the historic event you planned to attend was non – refundable?? You and many like minded people still are reeling, you wonder how your wonder woman lost. Well, she was outworked, outsmarted crushed by a political newcomer. Oh and by the way, as we all know due to donna brazil’s book that tells us what most had suspected from the start. Hillary owned the DNC. They were so confident of her victory that they gave her campaign complete control over all aspects of the dnc, from its checkbook to its hr dept. The saddest part of this entire takeover is that brazil lied when questions arose about the objectivity of the dnc. Brazil cheated by providing the hillary campaign with debate questions prior to those events. And now, like so many of the elitiststs,” progressives” who claim to have your best interest in mind
they continually demonstrate their unbridled contempt for you and their fellow dems. Again, how individuals like yourself, after knowing all of the cheating, lying, scheming and finger pointing that took place at the hillary campaign, knowing she and her closest advisers completely subverted the democratic process and snatched from every democratic voter in this country their opportunity to have their voice heard. Does that mean nothing to you and your fellow dem voters? How could you possibly trust her judgement, her veracity…it baffles the mind.

after knowing all of the cheating, lying, scheming and finger pointing that took place at the hillary campaign, knowing she and her closest advisers completely subverted the democratic process and snatched from every democratic voter in this country their opportunity to have their voice heard.

I suppose this howl of anguish means the Sanders voters are still upset about losing the primary? An orange nutcase has been destroying the country for the last 12 months – imposing policies that are the polar opposite of those your candidate supported – and your number one priority is still attacking your own side?

Good God man – pull your head out of your ass and look around you!!

The President is about to exert immunity from the judiciary – he is about to plunge the US into a democratic crisis the likes of which has never been seen before and you’re helping him because Hillary hurt your feelings. Your eye is so far from the ball it’s almost criminal.

This article has an oddly 20th century take on the media. For at least 20 years, news organizations have understood that the truth does not matter. For at least 10 years, they have known that telling deliberate lies, and being caught out, helps strengthen their relationship with viewers. It is a form, not exactly of virtue signalling, but of partisanship signalling. This episode communicates to viewers of MSNBC and CNN that those organizations’ hearts are in the right place. Far from being embarrassed, their boards of directors are busy awarding themselves record breaking year end bonuses.

Granted, as many indignant commenters have pointed out, this strategy was pioneered by Fox News. They earned plaudits from their fanbase by continually questioning Barack Obama’s birth certificate, even when there was no credible evidence to support their assertions. MSNBC has similarly just ensured the lifelong loyalty of many Democrats by demonstrating they too won’t let the truth interfere with their agenda.

This has been a wildly successful week for the mainstream media, however much Mr. Greenwald might attempt to denigrate their accomplishment.

Agreed. In fact, I’d go further and say Glenn is being highly irresponsible by insisting on the truth. All his out-dated scruples are achieving is slowing the arrival of our world-ending day of reckoning with Russia. He’s selfishly postponing his own family’s pleasure at waving mini US flags on the day the ICBM start to fly.

The loyalty of democrats to Maddow and the Russia narrative, is…. fucking scary. It’s as scary as the Obama Derangement Syndrome. The Democrats have a Trump/Russia Derangement Syndrome. And there ain’t no cure for this kind of syndrome.

Here’s something else: a good way to tell if someone is full of shit is if their big idea for a rhetorical move is to start a sentence with “Are you saying that….” followed by some totally inflammatory simplification and/or distortion of the other person’s position.

It’s a bullshit move Simon. It’s all too common. It adds nothing to any discussion, ever. Do better.

“Are you saying that blah shit blah shit blah shit blah?”

No Simon, actually literally nobody was saying that —– but thanks for bringing the discussion down to a level of stupid where you think you might have a chance of winning the argument.

Could be you are afraid of the answer, could be that you just don’t care to know. Not really relevant.

But whether you think it valid or not the fact remains that Glenn’s focus in this article is exclusively on the liberal media.

His valid complaint, i.e. that a partisan agenda is causing mainstream news outlets to make indefensible errors in reportage, only presents liberal news organisations as examples.

Does this phenomenon not exist amongst the conservative media? If Glenn’s concern is with principle rather than side, why has he focused entirely on poor journalistic behaviour on one side while ignoring even more egregious examples on the other?

It wasn’t a real question Simon asked, it was a rhetorical device. Is GG saying that only the “Left-leaning media* do this trick? The answer is no. It’s not an “interesting” question. It isn’t hard to answer. It’s a very simple no. If you were really in doubt about it, you could read what he writes about it. And no, I’m not going to go fetch it for you either. Fuck you two both, you disingenuous tools.

(*as you absurdly call CNN & MSNBC – no they are not “left-leaning” as photosymbiosis, pretzelattack, Art, etc. have explained in this thread)

No, of course GG wasn’t, and isn’t, and didn’t suggest that hyping a narrative with hastily assembled and journalistically dubious materials was somehow a feature mainly of what you laughably call the left-leaning media.

No, the idea that GG only attacks liberals is a tiresome but oft-repeated little myth that desperate and dishonest centrist liberals love to hold close to and have done so since Obama became president and suddenly — GG actually stayed consistent instead of being the partisan tool they had wished he was back when GWB was president. Oh the outrage. Why that GG is a traitor….it was so pathetic then, and it’s so pathetic now.

And you knew that already, the answer to your phony question, but you thought it would be clever to phrase it as a question that you didn’t already know the answer to. But it wasn’t clever, it was and absolutely typically badly performed rhetorical move designed not to make clear statements but to bog down a discussion.

It’s not about Trump, Simon. If the media wanted to take down Trump, it would be more easily accomplished by focusing on net neutrality, Wall Street deregulation, tax breaks for the wealthy, pharmaceutical drug pricing, coal & nuclear subsidies, the war on renewable energy, the Paradise Papers and tax avoidance, etc. etc.

No, this is really more a smear effort targeting Wikileaks, attempting to paint Russia as the bogeyman so military budgets and mass surveillance can be justified, and defending Clinton Democrats from charges that it was their own party platform, in particular their loyalty to Wall Street and disdain for ‘flyover country’ – not Russia – that cost them the election.

Photo – there may well be some who have that agenda, although justifying large military budgets and mass surveillance seems more like a GOP priority than a Democratic one.

That “seems like” part reflects your victimhood to propaganda that’s designed to convince you that. Actually, the Democrats haven’t been against those things or they wouldn’t be a part of current law. The ultra-rich want these things and they get them; they are the puppeteers.

Nonetheless suggesting that the entirety of the Liberal media is complicit with such an agenda is paranoid conspiracy of the highest order.

Over 90% of all non-internet media is controlled by just six ultra-rich white men. Read the book “Manufacturing Consent” to see how there doesn’t need to be any actual conspiracy for them to be working in lock-step. It’s a very well done, reasonably short book, erudite but accessible in every day language.

The media is not ‘liberal’, certainly not the American corporate media conglomerates that control >90% of the media output. That’s been debunked so many times as what it is, a propaganda line.
Noam Chomsky, The Myth of Liberal Media:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYlyb1Bx9Ic

The problem is that Trump emerges stronger after each of these incidents. The MSM is learning nothing from each of the “Russia” blame incidents. After each debacle, they are falling over more for some “nothing burgers”.

Because of this recklessness, Trump is able to play the victim card very very effectively which prevents us from stopping the real damage that he is doing with respect to Tax cuts, Military leeway etc. Heck, he told the crowd that “Fake news CNN finally apologized for it” for Roy Moore, indirectly telling the crowd not to believe what MSM says about his sexual predatory behavior.

ThirdEye – I agree wholeheartedly. The string of journalistic errors feeds into Trump’s narrative that the mainstream media is all “fake news”.

But Glenn’s advocacy does not exist in a vacuum – it plays an active part in this.

How many conservative websites have now linked to this article, citing it as proof that anti-Trump reportage is all Fake News? Breitbart is running a suspiciously similar piece as a headline today and predictably taking Glenn’s logic to an extreme “all anti-Trump stories are lies by a corrupt media” end. Maybe it is just a coincidence – but maybe Glenn’s article has played a part in generating this.

Like it or not, this article of Glenn’s is being used as a propaganda tool by some very unscrupulous people whose political goals are the polar opposite of his.

I’m not attacking Glenn personally – I know enough about him to know that his politics are generally in line with my own – I am asking him to consider the real world impact of his work. The democrat-leaning media absolutely deserves criticism for its rank stupidity and for allowing partisanship to taint its reporting – but maybe quit pointing this out in ways that help Donald Trump further weaken the checks and balances of American democracy.

I find the media has just become plain evil. These are lies that inflame the American public, those that watch and believe these habitual, unapologetic LIARS. They have an agenda, and I have been around habitual liars enough to know, it is a sickness and they are in denial. They think nothing of maniputlating people with lies to achieve their goals. With the amount of damage this is doing to a country, it is criminal.

The Laura Ingraham show? Someone who clerked for Clarence Thomas with all his history on the issue of the day?

Somebody who has one of the most disingenuous hacks, Newt Gingrich, on her show to catapult his bullshit propaganda?

If there’s a more craven propagandist and dishonest hack in media than Laura Ingraham, I guess it would have been BillO or maybe Hannity now.

This is who you want to lend legitimacy to by appearing on her show?

Jeffrey Hart, the faculty adviser for The Dartmouth Review described Ingraham as having “the most extreme anti-homosexual views imaginable”, claiming “she went so far as to avoid a local eatery where she feared the waiters were homosexual.” In 1997, she wrote an essay in The Washington Post in which she stated that she changed her views on homosexuality after witnessing “the dignity, fidelity, and courage” with which her gay brother Curtis and his partner coped with AIDS. Ingraham has stated that she supports civil unions, but still believes that marriage “is between a man and a woman”. — Wiki

Yeah, I guess like most Republicans, she didn’t possess basic empathy and couldn’t see the basic humanity of LGBT individuals, and as a lawyer couldn’t see that they should have equal rights under the law like every other adult–until something bad happened to her immediate family. And then she miraculously changed her views, kinda sorta.

Like I said, I guess we’re going to have to agree to disagree about what you see as the value of appearing on Fox News in the first instance, much less appearing on one of their prime propagandist conspiracy theory wackos (Hannity) working in media today.

I went in a wal-mart last night and bought some stuff. I’m sorry for lending them legitimacy, not to mention some of my money. I am bad now.

Define “bad”.

What I’d describe you as is “short-sighted” and “self-defeating” assuming you are aware of WalMart’s employment/business practices, virulent anti-unionism and supply chain issues. Assuming of course all your “best friends who stab the left in the back, is worse than right-wingers [like a majority of WalMart’s multi-billionaire heirs]” schtick. And/or assuming you aren’t living in relative poverty and WalMart is the only place within 20-50 miles where you can purchase groceries.

I vote, and I vote with my dollars in every single transaction I can think of from buying a book to my groceries, to my meager investments. Until Americans start recognizing the connection between how they consume and invest, and continue empowering the very forces in society they seek to tame, then all I can say is “good luck, never gonna happen”.

in all seriousness, I remember reading about Paul Krassner going on the Joe Pyne show in the 60s, which is PRECISELY the same kind of “oh he’s lending legitimacy to a bad person” thing, except Krassner really freaked Pyne out and probably made some friends along the way.

This whole “don’t go on anybody who is bad’s TV or radio show” thing is just infantile as politics. Go into the fucking den and be there and say what you need to say.

The idea that ONLY people who are already in bed ideologically with the host of those programs hear the show is wrong, by the way. When I had to drive truck in the middle 90s, I was forced to listen to tons of fucking Rush Limbaugh and even G. Gordon Liddy. Had I heard the middle 90s equivalent of Glenn Greenwald winning an argument with those turds (as would have happened) I would have been elated.

It’s stupid to presume that everything is a lost cause and all we can do is retreat to our gated communities of Acceptable Opinion. It’s stupid loser shit is what it is.

You were “forced” to listen to Limbaugh and Liddy? Why didn’t your radio in the truck receive any radio broadcasts that played music rather than right wing propaganda?

I don’t have a problem with going into the lion’s den so to speak. I simply don’t agree with the premise, that “on balance”, appearing on Fox News programming is swaying any regular Fox news listener or changing their values, or ability to reason, or ability not to engage in monumental hypocrisy and motivated reasoning. Glenn does. Thus we can agree to disagree.

Because I have, loads of times. I spent years in offices listening to “music for your workday” stations that, after 9/11, magically transformed into rightwing weirdo outlets (check out “Silent Night 9/11″ by “God” for an actual thing played over Clear Channel).

Anyway. One of those times was the months I spent driving team trucks. And I controlled the radio when I drove and the other guy controlled the radio when he drove.

What’s your deal, have you had it really easy so far in life? Never had to listen to things you didn’t want to? You are more out of touch than I thought, but you know, good for you, happy life.

Oh yeah and I had to hear weirdo Laura Ingraham too at that time. Anyways.

Rather than scroll down, I will respond to the comment earlier.

I KNOW MSNBC is more “factually accurate” than Fox News.

I also know that, say, NPR and the New York Times were far more damaging in regard to selling the Iraq War than Fox News — even though they were undoubtedly generally more “factually accurate.”

Because they built trust. And it’s back to false friends v. declared enemies.

A declared enemy could tell every lie in the world about you for days and days and it wouldn’t hurt you a bit. But a false friend could mess you over with one bit of trusted information that was a lie. That’s the difference. That’s why MSNBC is a bigger threat to the Leftward Movement we need than Fox News will ever be.

I also know that, say, NPR and the New York Times were far more damaging in regard to selling the Iraq War than Fox News — even though they were undoubtedly generally more “factually accurate.”

They were all equally bad. Plenty of blame to go around and not sure I’d suggest NPR or NYT was “more damaging” than Fox News in “selling the war”. I remember that period quite vividly and how people like me who argued restraint, patience, proportionality and holding only those responsible for 9-11 (financially and otherwise) via the law, as with the Cole bombing, and I got accused of being a traitor more than once.

NPR and NYT sold the war to people who wouldn’t believe in the cause if it came from Fox News.

Hey so continuing with my life story I had an interesting conversation in 2002 with a woman who found the build-up to war in Iraq credible on the following basis: because she trusted Hillary Clinton and figured Hillary Clinton had inside information that showed for sure that the war would be justified!

How do you like that one? That’s not even trusting a news channel, it’s trusting in one politician!

“Hey so continuing with my life story I had an interesting conversation in 2002 with a woman who found the build-up to war in Iraq credible on the following basis: because she trusted Hillary Clinton and figured Hillary Clinton had inside information that showed for sure that the war would be justified!”

This isn’t crazy if you assume that she was then being advised by the immediately preceding president who himself had access to the full compliment of relevant U.S. Intelligence from no longer than 10 months previous.

Knowing she’s craven and had political ambitions beyond the Senate, it stands to reason that she wouldn’t stake her political future on such a disastrous vote having much more information than her fellow Senators.

Greenwald should appear wherever he’s allowed, in my opinion. He’s actually extremely careful and consistent in his explicit meaning – something I’ve only noticed over considerable time following him.

I think the idea that he lends’ legitimacy’ to the outlets that show him is akin to the silly notion that Assange’s understandable bias against the maddeningly establishmentarian Hillary Clinton should condemn him as a Trump supporter.

Like I stated, repeatedly, this is an issue people can agree to disagree about.

I know, and you’ve all stated quite clearly what Glenn himself has said about his appearances on that network. I’ve even conceded there’s some validity to those arguments.

I simply disagree that Glenn is changing any hearts, minds or values–on balance–by being the token liberal on that network once every couple of months. And in doing so I think, and others can disagree in good faith, that he devalues his own credibility in the minds of many (though not necessarily me) and lends an air of legitimacy to what I believe is a straight up propaganda endeavor.

I understand your point but it’s a bit like all the criticism of people appearing on RT or RT America.

It does provide at least provide some kind of a platform for the exchange of views; and I don’t think Stephen Colbert or the Today Show or Rachel Maddow or Ellen Degeneres is going to have Glenn Greenwald on; though I bet he’d accept if they offered . . . Ellen Degeneres wouldn’t have Chelsea Manning on either. . . But she did have GW Bush on early in 2017, and I don’t think she brought up the war criminal issues!

“My point is, and there can be a legitimate disagreement about this issue on balance (as Glenn and I disagree on this one obviously), which is “on balance is it better to have a point of view expressed on the propaganda arm of the Republican party, or to hold out for a different venue (where his brand and credibility are not misused or conflated for bad purposes) of which there are many for Glenn to make any points or arguments about which he feels strongly.” – rrheard

An analogous argument was made against Bernie Sanders, David Stockman, Ralph Nader, Michael Flynn, Ann Wright and some 2300 other “idiots” for appearing on the “second-rate news network with an abysmal reputation. . .Russian propaganda machine” and “disinformation tool”: RT

The Kremlin’s Platform for ‘Useful Idiots’ in the West: An Overview of RT’s Editorial Strategy and Evidence of Impact, September 18, 2017 came out of the European Values Think-Tank, a “neutral NGO” which gets funding from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, the US and the UK (through their embassies), the European Parliament, and the European Commission.

Regardless of how one characterizes a network – or the people that appear on it – I couldn’t agree with the author’s reasoning, and I can’t agree with yours.

I understand how you feel. That’s the first thought that went through my head. Laura Ingraham? Wut???

But you have to admit that Glenn uses his 3 minutes brilliantly and effortlessly. He’s cordial, but he’s not pally. That interview is vintage Glenn. For a moment there, Ingraham was scared out of her mind about what might come of Glenn’s mouth next about Fox. That was scintillating television.

Seriously. What does Greenwald expect from CNN? Actual journalists doing their job. In the beginning with Bernard Shaw as their main anchor, they were an actual news network. Now, their management has said that traditional rolling news is dead. We don’t do that anymore. Translation: We will do, say and put anything on air to get ratings. Van Jones sits on-air with Anderson Cooper and various white racist neocons who scream at him. Under no circumstances can he ever scream back at them. If he does that, he’s labelled as an uppity n****r and fired. CNN says they’re developing a new show with him, starting in January. Do you seriously think that Jones is going to say or do anything to jepordize any of that? If he does that, he’s just another person of color who loses that access.

All the giant corporations who own media just don’t fucking care. And neither do the multi millionaire “news stars”.

Apparently in your world, the level of freedom one has is the amount of screaming you’re allowed against your debate opponent. You might want to up your dosage of your SSRIs.

Also, Van Jones is probably the most racist TV news anchor and the truth is that no one is allowed to call him out for it. Don’t you remember, “this is a white-lashing” election? Most racist comment ever to appear that day on public TV…. kind of makes you look low-IQ and ignorant when all the counties in Ohio who voted for Trump this election happened to majority-vote Obama in office the previous 2 elections.

How many times do you have to be told that there is NO U.S. media. What we
have in this country is a giant propaganda network pretending to be U.S. media, fair and balanced. All electronic and print media are either directly owned by Jews whose first loyalty is to Israel or controlled by top level management.
Now that is about as ugly an anti-Semitic statement as one will likely see, but the truth is that this writer is not at all anti-Semitic. I am pro-American as opposed to pro-Israel. I send best wishes to Israel, but the Israel firsters and our corrupt, supine, sniveling, cowardly congress should be called out and labeled as what they are. My complaint is with the U.S. , not Israel or Jews.
Israel and its supports in this country and elsewhere are free to express their opinions and act accordingly, but the U.S. congress is so corrupt and craven, so full of themselves, that they will allow Israel to deliberately attack a U.S. ship (The USS Liberty) and ignore Israel’s murdering of U.S. citizens, one of whom was Rachel Corrie. Our unbelievably cowardly congress was too frightened of Israeli supporters in this country to utter one word of condemnation, much less outrage. Our govt. and media are corrupt to the core. Will we survive? History will answer that question, but I will say that
every empire is either destroyed from without or decays from within. The U.S., not being god’s chosen, is no exception

THE WEREWOLF BOY OF MUMBAI SCRWS THE POOCH! OUCH! AND CNN WEARS THE ‘DRIBBLINGS’. NO RETALIATION NOW-REMEMBER-‘DIVERSITY’, RIGHT? MANU SAMPANNABBBUUNGATU IS A WONDERFUL BOY AND RARELY BITES ANYMORE THOUGH HE IS PRONE TO GET FACTS WRONG. FEED HIM TWIDE DAILY AND ONLY RED MEAT. THX.

CNN pimped this as part of the collusion story: that Sessions deliberately omitted contacts with the Russian ambassador. Sessions told media that the FBI told him no contact info needed while he was a Senator. CNN had expert on who said this was basically a lie from Sessions. Appears not listing contacts while a US Senator is standard practice.

What pundit said that CNN and the major media are so bad that they actually make Trump look like a victim.

MSNBC can start by dumping Rachel Maddow and Ken Dilanian. Then if they want to imitate a news outlet they should find a new owner other than Commiecast. The Washington Post needs to be sold again and this time not to someone openly dealing with the CIA. Doesn’t it seem suspicious to anyone that the one person that the people in this investigation have tried to blame everything on
is the one person who hasn’t been interviewed by either the House or Senate Intelligence Committees or the FBI. That person of course is Julian Assange. The guy who has constantly stated that it was not the Russian Government that supplied them with the e-mails.

Trump is completely vulnerable on all kinds of issues that resonate with the American public – his attack on net neutrality, his effort to deregulate Wall Street, his subsidies for coal and nuclear and his attack on renewable energy companies, his refusal to contorl pharmaceutical prices, etc. etc. etc. – but every one of those issues, they are ones where Trump and Wall Street are aligned. And of course, blaming Russia for everything plays right into the profits of the major arms dealers, like Lockheed and Northrup.

Yes, Trump makes Wall Street nervous because he’s an incompetent blowhard who acts like a bull in a china shop, sure, so they want to beat him about the head with Russia nonsense to keep him in line. They’d rather have loyal predictable Clinton, no doubts there. But if you think Trump isn’t loyal to his billionaire pals, you’re sadly mistaken.

Benjamin Wittes finally got around to noting that the CNN story he hyped has “serious problems”; needless to say, that acknowledgment received a fraction of retweets from his followers as his original tweets hyping the story attracted.

This “update” reminds me of JFK:

“There’s an old saying that victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan. “

People of a certain persuasion tend not to say, “oops, pardon me” but rather, “get out of my way.”

They are doing themselves and the country no favors with all this Russia bs. None at all. Where does the demonization lead but to armed conflict? And a nuclear-backed red army is a different ball of wax to the Vietcong or ragtag insurgents in Afghanistan. No thought is being given to the horrible inevitable result of all this bear baiting.

As stated by Greenwald, their anonymous “sources” are intelligence figures or Congressional toadies of the CIA whom the media takes uncritically and at face value, and these people seem to want to pull the strings on some sort of escalated conflict with Russia.

BTW – the audio and video are not synced on the CNN video.
The MSNBC Dilanian video isn’t available for playing at all here.
I’m sure its my settings, but watching videos is rarely a problem.

I spend a little time reading Breitbart.com and its comments yesterday.
Granted, they count FB posts along w/the “newspaper” comments, but they got numbers as high as 54,000. Let’s up the interest and dialogue here, people.

Anthony “Tony” Podesta began lobbying in late 2013 on behalf of a company co-owned by ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum aiming to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the global market. Tony is the brother of John Podesta, former top climate change adviser to President Barack Obama and current top campaign aide for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 bid for president.

Then Trump goes and puts Exxon’s CEO in charge of the US State Department . That says a lot about the real nature of things; Wall Street and multinational corporations use Clinton Democrats and Republicans as their sock puppets in this Punch & Judy Show, by and large.

There is no doubt that quality is better than quantity. (Did you see the comments here on the undocumented people in Mexico?)

Being cloistered and essentially honest, I didn’t consider bots and other unscrupulous and deceitful ways that people jack up their numbers.
I should have written “spent” not spend time reading, but I figured I would find an outrageous enough story and see what people had to say. I figured I could discern the truth readily enough – in general.
I forgot – so thank you for updating me technologically.

As I no longer watch television, I don’t turn the channels as I used to – for comparison purposes or just to hear the other side – but I have to tell you that Fox’s lies stood out like a neon sign before Trump was a candidate.

Last night, I listened to a podcast from June 2017 at the 92 St Y, with William Cohan and Michael Gross. In addition to the scary stories about blowback from his books (Rogues’ Gallery, specifically), Mr Gross got into the existential crisis facing authors, books, magazines, and newspapers.

He mentioned something about the NYT – and other newsrooms – firing the person responsible for checking for errors. This must be further along the editing/legal chain, because he specifically spoke about the Corrections page being moved around to different pages on the newspaper every day.

I wonder if a similar redundant person who was present in television news studios existed before and no longer exists. How else could things – at such a historical moment – go so tragically (and hysterically) off the rails?
All I can say about Friday night, is that I didn’t watch any television.
This s**tstorm carried on without me.

If the very thought of allowing Mr Trump the privileges and perks of office offends you to your very core, you should be utterly outraged that these continuous mistakes put journalism and credibility in the worst possible light.
Trump = 2 / Cable = 0.

As a left of center Russiagate skeptic, the most infuriating thing for me is seeing the propaganda succeed remarkably on folks I know are quite capable of critical thinking. But so many are simply lapping up their thin gruel of lies and asking for more. How many times can the MSM bombshell be a dud, be thoroughly debunked, but still cited by these maniacs?

but having observed this up close with many of my normie lib friends, there are limits for most of them. The enthusiasm droops. Try not to shake it in their face at those moments where they realize they’ve been had. But do mention cold war nostalgia, because none of them want to be their parents.

Glenn, first of all – THANK YOU! We the People, (with the absolutely needed help of Reverend William Barber II, Gina Belafonte and many, many others) have initiated, “A Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival”. Today, we poor and our allies, begin the final push-back to the rise of the bankster oligarchic power in the world. Reverend Barber and others bring hope to billions of people everywhere, while we flood legislative offices with our demand of true freedom from violence.

We poor have had enough. The first march of resistance was in the ’60’s. The first Poor Peoples March came from all over America, to Washington, D.C. It was from December 4, 1967 to June 19, 1968 (the year of Martin Luther King’s murder on April 4th in Memphis). I was 22 then, a white kid from the ‘burbs, revolting from my right-wing upbringing with my new-found counter-culture Hippy buds.

I bring this up, not just because that We Poor People (I am disabled) are rising up. But all of us, (We the People, i.e. the moral majority), have had about enough of the falsehoods and outright crappola gossip being slipped through “tweets”, cable news and “fb” – all privately-owned corporations. Bigotry, immorality and rampant lying cannot be tolerated in our public commons. Thank you and The Intercept for your wonderful truth-telling reporting! We the People, once the “middle-class”, now the poor of America, are standing up to the violence of poverty. I believe that human beings may yet, have a slim chance of overcoming the onset of fascism in America and the taking-back our Democracy! Just in time to prevent the worst of an irreversible Climate Chaos barreling head-on at us. And the insanity of a nuclear Armageddon (including 450+ nuclear reactors and 200+ nuclear propulsion systems that currently are degrading into permanent long-term, genetic-mutating time-bombs). Thank you!

This was intentional for sure and for anyone who thinks otherwise I’ve got some oceanfront property in East Tennessee I’ll sell you… The only thing I find amusing is the media’s end game – what’s the plan? What ever that plan is, the mainstream media seems to be under the impression that any semblance of a reputation is not required.

Dear Glenn,
Very good article. I don’t know what can be done other than turn off the main stream media. True journalism is being sacrificed. The supposed journalist would say that their ends will justify the means. The world is corrupt enough, why do we have to watch it.
Thanks again for replenishing my faith in true journalism!!! I hope you have a nice Christmas!
John Determan

In response to several of the commenters here. Sorry, but Assad did gas his own people. Just because he’s an enemy of the US doesn’t make him a benevolent dictator. He is a cold and bloody tyrant who has murdered many more people in the Syrian conflict than ISIS and Al Qaeda put together.

Given that Assad would be sensitive to international opinion and that chemical weapons gave no real advantage in the fight with Al Qaeda and ISIS (who were the only effective anti-Assad forces, recall), the motive is hard to understand.

As far as actual evidence as to who fired the 2013 gas attacks, that is problematic as well – there is a lot of discussion of this available online, such as Hersch in the London Review of Books, etc., that points to it being a false flag attack engineered by rebel groups, possibly with chemical weapons obtained from Libya and/or Turkey with CIA complicity.

At the very least, skepticism about the reliability of these claims is warranted – particularly since the US government ‘intelligence agencies’ have a record of lying about WMDs as part of regime change efforts, as Iraq 2003 demonstrated.

As to Assad’s motivation, his strategy is to terrorise the rebels and civilian population, that is why he drops barrel bombs on residential neighbourhoods and attacks hospitals and schools (I do hope that at least you are not going to deny the regime’s involvement in these attacks). Chemical weapons are horribly well-suited to inspiring terror in the civilian population that is why he used them. I think that Assad is or was far more afraid of his internal enemies than US intervention and not the slightest bit concerned about international opinion – why should he be? He was never going to win it over and, as an old Fiorentino once remarked, “It is better to be feared than loved.”

It’s pretty hard to get inside the minds of foreign leaders, for example, although he was hopelessly wrong, Saddam was far more afraid of Iran than US intervention.

Here’s my theory: the Trump admin KNEW there were leakers left over from the Obama admin, and wanted to expose them. Knowing that both the leakers and the Fakestream Media recipients of said leakage were too intoxicated on their own self-righteousness to actually verify the readily available info, or even know of its existence, in advance, they fed the wrong date to the suspected rats. They fell for the juvenile ruse in vaudevillian, banana peels and cream pies fashion. Look for a couple of former Obama admin staffers to be arrested, or otherwise be publicly humiliated. Funny stuff!

US media is propaganda. It’s not news, it’s not been accurate for over a decade. Find those weapons of mass destruction yet? Find proof that Assad despite having a military and an airforce at his disposal keeps gassing his own civilian population giving the US it’s >ONLY< excuse to bomb him? End that humanitarian crisis in Libya yet?

It's lies, it's propaganda, it's not accurate, it doesn't try to be accurate.

There's not a SINGLE PERSON in US corporate media with an OUNCE of integrity. They've all been eliminated, over a decade ago.

Not entirely fair, there are reporters who try to do their jobs without bias but the entire corporate structure of the media is against them, I think. Here’s an example from the Podesta emails, of at least one Washington Post reporter asking the right questions of the Clinton campaign:

From: Ho, Catherine
To: Katie Beck
Subject: can you comment?
Hi Katie, I’m working on a story about Hillary Clinton’s remarks yesterday on lowering prescription drug prices and opposing Keystone pipeline. A number of the lobbyist bundlers who raise money for her campaign lobby on behalf of pharmaceutical manufacturers and oil companies, including Tony Podesta, who represents Amgen, Merck and BP. BP has been in favor of Keystone. I’m wondering if this is something Tony can comment on? What does he think about HRC’s position on these two issues? Will he continue supporting/bundling for her campaign?

In the back-and-forth, John & Tony Podesta respond thus:

John: I’d stay out I think.
Tony: No benefit from being in this story in post on lobbyist bundlers.

I think the WaPo editors and owners would likely have buried the story on back pages and not done any follow-ups, however. That’s how the system operates; it’s not complete censorship. And Catherine Ho is still doing good reporting on lobbying at the Washington Post; Trump has as many lobbyists on staff as Clinton, despite his ‘drain the swamp’ pledges:https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/catherine-ho/

I don’t think it matters a bit if there are even a LOT of reporters who are honest. It’s irrelevant if their story is buried.

I remember 30 years ago, if a news outlet made “an error”, all the other networks would be on top of it, pointing it out, until a retraction was forced. That ended when the United States went into Iraq, and it’s been propaganda ever since.

Look at all the outright falsifications of the media today. I listed a few, and there’s plenty more. You know it, I know it. You’re not even allowed to comment on “news stories” in the United States with few exceptions because for 15 years, diligent people would be pointing out the “errors” of the story, over and over and over again.

Just accept it, the US doesn’t have a media anymore, it’s got propaganda, and that’s about it. To find out what is going on, you have to go to some fringe website to start with, then research their claims. I know what the motivations of the United States is to be in Syria because of this. I know why the US destroyed Libya in the same way.

But if you talk about it, well, you’re just a conspiracy nut, and regardless of how much information you have at your disposal, good luck convincing the brownshirts, who are a significant percentage of the population.

Not that there hasn’t been progress, of some sort but today, I live in an age where the people who were properly denouncing Bush for lying us into a war have either been fired, or have become presstitutes for Obama, who was all but identical in foreign policy of murdering people to protect the banking sector, private corporations with heavy affiliations with the intelligence communities, all the while attacking anybody that dares to lay out the truth.

It’s hard to come up with a convincing argument against your point of view, I have to admit. Trying to find the reliable information in the spew produced by US corporate media is like looking for diamonds in a sewer; few and far between.

Antitrust action is probably the only hope; break the majors up into hundreds of independent organizations.

Antitrust action is probably the only hope; break the majors up into hundreds of independent organizations.

This is being ENCOURAGED by our .

Let me just say it, we’re in a fascist society, with Goebbels propaganda, complete with wars of aggression. We have the largest per capita population in the world in prison, and we think nothing about using torture against enemies, the Magna Carta along with Habeus Corpus is gone, the Constitution isn’t enforced, criminals run the government and we’re all spied on. We live in a police state.

That’s our situation, and it’s not going to end until this country collapses, one way or another. We may finally ignite a war against a major country (any of which we’ll lose against, including Iran and North Korea), there may be a revolution, the US dollar may just be abandoned by the world, or it could be full on nuclear Armageddon.

The United States is run by absolute madmen. Our last two presidents, and now our current one, are war criminals. We executed people like our last 3 presidents in WWII, along with their commanders and their underlings – and deservedly so.

Stalin was right, at the end of capitalism, at least this form, appears to be fascism, and I’m no fan of Stalin either. USSR’s communism was one of the worst systems ever on this planet – but I applaud Russia from finally escaping from it.

I suppose we deserve it, after 16 years of just bombing people that never did anything to the United States. I guess we earned this. Well I didn’t, but MOST OF THE PEOPLE IN THE US have.

I’m just sick and tired of this lying media, lying government, corrupt politicians, the deep state which does apparently exist, economic fascists, no prosecution for banking criminals – we’re just a totally corrupt nation at this point.

It’s too bad, this nation once had good ideals, flawed in implementation, but at least it had ideals. Not anymore.

Judith Miller repeated lies of Ahmed Chalabi from the NY Times which the Bush administration directly used for justification to invade Iraq. She won the Pulitzer Prize for this “work”, and retains that prize to this day.

What the Intercept is TRYING to do, gently, is suggest that “mainstream news” in the United States has become propaganda.

Well, let me help – I’m stating it outright. If you actually have paid attention for the last 15 years or so, you can see that every major story is BS.

No, what TI is trying to do, gently, is get the news to act responsibly and be accountable for their egregious debacles. That means opening up the process, whether it makes them look like assholes or liars.

In this particular time of danger, when POTUS, his family, flunkies, & supporters have the desire, will, and power to disseminate lies, and a willing segment of the population to believe & further spread them, the media is about all we have.

No, what TI is trying to do, gently, is get the news to act responsibly and be accountable for their egregious debacles.

Well, they’re not going to.

If they ever had any intention of doing this, the biggest story in the mid 2000’s would be who was responsible for the “mistaken intelligence” that led us into Iraq, and why haven’t they all been fired?

Instead, what happened, is that honest and correct assessments of the situation were retaliated against, and the people responsible for them removed. What we have left are a bunch of corrupt intelligence agencies that just follow orders, and a propaganda media that does the same.

It never hurts to try.
Look at how the coverage on the Erik Prince story exploded (went mainstream).

I do think it’s time to separate the “propaganda” media into proper categories.
Network isn’t cable. Cable isn’t the MSM print journalism. (Cable isn’t even just cable, when you factor in RT, BBC, NHK, etc.) Print journalism isn’t the same as independent journalism. NPR isn’t Rush Limbaugh. You get my point.

And to my recollection, the collective propaganda of MSM print (to which television seems to also abide – cable and network) always occurred when the USG is either revving up the war machine, trying to gain support for it, or perpetuating it.

MY point is, that there’s a heavy financial interest in pushing an agenda and as a result, anybody that is funded, INCLUDING GREENWALD, is forced to push an agenda.

Let’s just stop pretending that any journalism, that is well funded, is objective, because it’s not. It can cover real journalism, but it better push a particular agenda when it’s required, or the funding ends.

And to my recollection, the collective propaganda of MSM print (to which television seems to also abide – cable and network) always occurred when the USG is either revving up the war machine, trying to gain support for it, or perpetuating it.

And that’s why you should ignore them, or at least, call the murderers out. They are complicit. There’s precious few journalists, and plenty of presstitutes. They have no ideals, no morals, no integrity. A tiny few do.

My advice: If you can’t comment on a story, ignore it, it’s propaganda. Furthermore, you should try to get banned on every site, to test the limits of it’s actual free speech. Don’t just do it by shouting obscenities, get banned like I do, by challenging a claim, justifiably. Go to “fringe” websites, and check their claims. I know why the US went to Syria, there’s a Russian base there, and Genie Energy made a deal with Israel to steal oil from the Golan Heights. All the “chemical attacks” were carried out by US funded terrorists to frame Assad in a false flag. I can give you enough evidence to convince you, if you insist.

A good portion of Americans, I’d say over 25% at this point, realizes that the “media” isn’t information, it’s lies. For example: you might hate Trump for example, but the people who voted for him, don’t trust the system, don’t trust politicians, and don’t believe the media. And they are right not to trust them. Trump isn’t what they wanted, but at least, it wasn’t the Butcher of Libya that voted for the Authorization to Use Force in Iraq. At least that wasn’t voted for, a warcriminal and mass murderer.

Welcome to the age of chaos, when Propaganda, no longer is effective. People can no longer be as easily controlled, because after a point, everybody wakes up and once you’re awake, you don’t go back to sleep. Western society is irredeemably corrupt. It’s going to end in a collapse, and I welcome it. If you can’t reform it, kill it.

Tom, a pedantic scold, pretends to rely upon his judgments built almost solely upon the observation of (or lack thereof) a rather pointless display of linguistic variety he himself has not even deigned to employ in his own presentations of opinion within the confines of these channels, probably because he himself is a fucking douche.

This smells like a setup, and the targets were too incompetent to avoid it. next time you think you have the story of the century, take a minute and breath, and then call the fact checkers. remember how the WAPO was targeted by the lady lying about underage sex with Roy Moore just a week or two ago? opportunities about to destroy your credibility as a reporter of facts. remember that “facts” seem to be biased against the corporitist/imperialist/neo-liberal agenda.

“Surreptitious techniques pioneered in Moscow and Beijing to use the internet to drown out dissent and undermine free elections broke into view during the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States.”

Are they openly admitting Hillary’s “Correct The Record” attempt to “drown out” Progressive voices by paying web sites to ban progressives from pushing Bernie over Hillary?! I have LOTS of evidence about that – just go read the chat logs over at http://TheTroyPress.com/chat.html

But I cannot imagine the NYT talking about that! AND, it had nothing to do with Russia or China… Unless, perhaps, they know something about Hillary’s REAL donor list that we don’t know!

And, they state this as if well proven fact, no qualifiers whatsoever.

MY solution to the problem of MSM lies like this is to never bother to read their propagandistic bullshit. Whatever value there may be in the NYT would be perhaps as a local-events paper for the people who live in NYC, and I don’t live there, so it has no value to me. Any time it talks about any other subject, I can get the data more honestly from somewhere else, including, often (and a lot more reliably) from Russia Today!

And this story was almost never discussed in the MSM. Some outlets, like the NYT, mentioned it in passing now and then, treating it so matter of factly as though it were common knowledge and unremarkable.

How interesting you talk about our youth – I just posted a comment only slightly down-thread about how I got inoculated from the propaganda and can usually pick out media lies instantly, or at least pick out the spots where a framework has been constructed in a way that wary readers should know is where a lie would be found.

In short, the NYT is right, we need our youth to be better educated to recognize propaganda when they see it – and I point out how it worked for me in my comment! :-)

That’s pretty hilarious. Here’s another quote from the same article:From the Philippines and Ecuador to Turkey and Kenya, governing parties used paid commentators, trolls, bots, false news sites and propaganda outlets to inflate their popular support and essentially endorse themselves.
Does the NYT ever look itself in the mirror? Their own op-ed and news pages are full of the same kind of behind-the-scenes orchestration. From their fraudulent reporting on Iraqi WMDs in 2002-2003, to refusing to let James Risen publish his expose of domestic mass surveillance before the 2004 election, the new norm is a lack of journalistic integrity.

I did a little digging through Podesta’s emails on this, wow the things the Clinton campaign got up to. Their fundraising system for all their operations, for example:

Those groups – along with another pro-Clinton group, the super PAC Ready for Hillary – had their fundraising practices called into question last week by a New York Times report. It pointed out that veteran Democratic fundraiser Mary Pat Bonner got a 12.5 percent commission on funds she raised for Brock’s groups, and a smaller percentage commission on cash she raised for Ready for Hillary.

Well, the NYT isn’t always full of it, I suppose. But the insider connections between pro-Clinton ‘journalists’ and Podesta are pretty blatant. Here’s one between Podesta and Brent Budowsky on a Clinton quite implying she’d be open to Social Security cuts, Oct 29, 2015

Podesta: It may be an accurate quote but she is against raising the age and cuts.
Brent Budowsky: I will hunt down the alleged quote and if the Bernie people are bullshitting I will blast Bernie and I will go to the group that sent me the email I forwarded to you and insist they retract it or I will blast them too.

Ye gods. . . The Clinton campaign had a whole stable of pet ‘journalists’, bloggers, social media commentators, all presenting themselves as ‘independent’.

I generally look for news via a variety of search engines (DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, sometimes Google News); it’s remarkable how rarely anything groundbreaking comes up from the NYTimes; they’re usually late to the party and/or highly biased in coverage. And their op-ed page, like that Thomas Friedman puff piece on the Saudi Princeling, it’s ridiculous. I honestly find it hard to imagine anyone at all taking it seriously – but I suppose some do.

I’ve also got in the habit of backchecking all stories on Wikileaks to see what relevant info turns up; that’s lots of fun.

Greenwald is like the Trump of reporters. Sometimes you love him, sometimes you hate him, but he always keeps it real. Everything he says here is obviously true and proof that you can still get your due as a reporter if you just stick to the facts and make it about the issue at hand and not yourself. Let’s never forget that Greenwald made a name for himself by reporting on the Snowden leak when all the fake media passed on it. What all of these journalists are looking for with his collusion stuff is a chance to make a name for themselves with a bombshell, Pulitzer quality story. The Snowden leaks WERE that story and all these fako boobs passed on it. And note how many of them have completely destroyed their credibility and jobs in the time since. That should tell you all you need to know about what amateurs they are and what a professional Greenwald is. If anything this is some of his worst work because he is telling us what we already know. That the US MSM are hapless boobs. Is anyone really shocked or surprised?

Glenn should get some kind of medal for this impressive piece of journalism.
Obviously Mueller has no choice but to continue his charade of investigating baseless claims of Trump collusion, money laundering and tax evasion and maybe even treasonous conspiracies with the enemy.
What a ridiculous waste of time and taxpayer dollars. Go Glenn, don’t let anything said here make you take your eye off the ball!

Obviously Mueller has no choice but to continue his charade of investigating baseless claims of Trump collusion, money laundering and tax evasion and maybe even treasonous conspiracies with the enemy.

Do you honestly believe that a former lawyer, Glenn Greenwald, would consider Mueller’s investigation a “charade of baseless claims” if it found members of the Trump administration, or campaign staff engaged in money laundering and tax evasion?

I’d say you don’t know Glenn Greenwald very well, nor are you familiar with his work, or why he does it.

What a ridiculous waste of time and taxpayer dollars.

You mean like the 7 years and 10s of millions of dollars expended to prove Bill Clinton lied about consensual sexual relations with a woman not his wife during his tenure as POTUS? Or do you mean Whitewater or Travelgate? I’m sure you complained about those “ridiculous wastes of time and taxpayer dollars” at the time, amiright?

It’s better than that. Trump trolled Meuller into an investigation that would inevitably unearth Mueller’s own real crimes and those of the very people levying accusations against him. The Uranium One fallout is just beginning. This ‘special council’ is firing people left and right for run-of-the-mill corruption and has tied it’s own hands so that it still has to dig deeper into it’s own real crimes. The indictments are ready for them when they do but Trump (and me) are more than happy to watch them squirm their way towards this inevitability, posturing hubristically all the way. It reminds me of Saddam Hussein screaming insults at the hangman. Turns out it didn’t help. Can’t wait to see it all reach it’s apex. 2018 will be a banner year for the people who make orange jumpsuits. Their customer base looks to grow to include some of DCs biggest names.

Glenn has always called for a careful an impartial investigation of Russian manipulation and collusion with the Trump campaign. Of course.

What he has never done is conflate the issue of alleged collusion with the baseless and spurious claim that Putin caused Clinton to lose the election. Anyone who allows the latter claim to slip in is hardly better than Breitbart, and perhaps in some ways worse.

This is why I read news from multiple sources that range from the far right to the far left. I learned long ago that the media are biased. Sometimes just a natural result from the “journalists'” upbringing and sometimes very intentional. There is no such thing as unbiased reporting.

The establishment, which includes the MSM, never wanted Trump. They were behind Hillary. You just need to be aware of who the establishment is, and how they control the government and the country. The MSM carry water for them. They are allowed to purposefully lie to the American people with impunity. I doubt any of these incidents where they are caught lying will stop them from doing it again. And for one minute don’t believe only Democrats are anti-Trump.

The Washington Post reveals the name of an anonymous source one frickin’ time, and that only because that source was NOT working for the establishment, it was working for the people, and you applaud that. Yeah, ok, sure thing Greenwald, you’re such a fake. You work for “them” too.

To say that these networks “lack objectivity” may be one of the great understatements in journalistic history. They are SOOOOO desperate for “collusion” to be true (whatever hat may be), they see collusion in every email, statement etc.

Second, super glad to hear that the reason your output has been little less than normal is that you’re getting/taking the opportunity to stay home and focus on your kids. That’s the most important job in life, IMHO.

Third, good story. Most of it has been hashed out pretty thoroughly below, so I don’t have much to add.

Fourth, I thought Gator90 had decided not to comment here any longer because he’s lost faith in your work (and you presumably) and thinks most of those who comment under it are disingenuous cranks (or something approaching that). At least that’s what I’ve noticed he tells his commenting pals over at the Lawyers Guns and Money Blog, where they discuss such riveting topics as NFL football, US military technology, Ketchup, music and anime.

Fifth, my only concern I have about pieces like this, and on this topic generally (media inaccuracy and unaccountability for same–and its carry-on effects), is that the same article could be written on a daily basis about stories published by Fox News and any particular right-wing blog or “news” outlet.

And the fact, and this is a longstanding critique from me (one that you’ve answered consistently although I’d say unsatisfyingly from my perspective i.e. that you will opine on a topic basically almost wherever will provide you a platform) that when you use someone like Ron Paul (or a principle he happens to hold that the nominal “left” does as well), or an appearance on the Sean Hannity show, that your reputation provides cover and legitimacy for the rank propaganda and horrible ideas and methods that are at the basic core of endeavors like Fox News, Sean Hannity or someone like Ron Paul.

I think it does a disservice to your journalism and the validity of your ideas to have them conflated, associated or otherwise used to create false equivalenc(ies) with other media (who on balance are not flagrant propaganda outlets even though they occasionally make tremendous errors) and their predominant ideological bias(es).

I agree that we can disagree on the last issue, and that I concede there is some validity to your reasoning for why you do that without it necessarily raising questions about bias or your motives (although many others use it to do precisely that).

Nevertheless, glad you are back. Hope everything is going well for you, David and the kids. And Happy Holidays to you and your family.

For my part here’s wishing that in the new year things will have settled down for you a bit and you’ll have more time to write for The Intercept because I think it desperately needs your regular voice. Just my $0.02.

RR, your interest in my doings and whereabouts is touching, in a mildly creepy sort of way.

You are obviously a frequent lurker at LGM. Maybe one day you’ll work up the nerve to say something there, instead of running over here to bizarrely “tattle” on me for my allegedly unsavory associations.

Don’t flatter yourself slick. I lurk over at LGM when I notice they are sliming Greenwald, and to read the comments that follow because I’m highly disturbed that second rate American academics think it is okay to routinely libel Greenwald.

That you hang out with people like that is totally unsurprising to me. But I’m not there to watch what you have to say, only that I notice it sometimes and to point out your hypocrisy when you return here, despite the nasty shit you say, or agree with, behind Glenn’s back over there.

I don’t comment there because, with the exception of Prof. Loomis’ work on labor history and issues, there isn’t anything of value there worth commenting on, nor are LGM’s commenters worth engaging with on the merits on most topics.

But go ahead and accuse the guy whose posted under his real name for a decade of not have the nerve to defend his convictions or opinions.

So like I said slick, don’t flatter yourself that I’d stalk you or tattle on you. I just like pointing out your pathetic hypocrisy when you return here, given what you say behind Glenn’s back about his work, his integrity and/or that of some of his commenters.

Then again, I’m not the sort of pathetic person who gets a “thrill” being in the same room as Hillary Clinton–that would be you fella.

I suspect you refrain from debating LGM commenters (even when they insult Glenn!) due to a well-founded fear that your self-image as a brilliant intellectual would be punctured by the experience. But I could be wrong.

I don’t think I’ve said anything about Glenn elsewhere that I would be unwilling to say here.

I suspect you refrain from debating LGM commenters (even when they insult Glenn!) due to a well-founded fear that your self-image as a brilliant intellectual would be punctured by the experience. But I could be wrong.

You’d be wrong. I don’t claim to be a brilliant “intellectual”, and never have, at least not in the sense of “intellectual” as being equal to “academic”. That would be your little circle jerk of second rate academics over at LGM who go about maligning everyone’s character and engaging in character assassination of anyone who doesn’t buy into their strained arguments on whatever topic.

That’s when they aren’t too busy blaming the election loss on Susan Sarandon or Jill Stein, which is, quite frankly, absurd. Seriously, a blog full of “academics” who waste time running down Susan Sarandon as an influential political actor that everyone in America is influenced by?

I don’t think I’ve said anything about Glenn elsewhere that I would be unwilling to say here.

If I had the time or interest I’d demonstrate you’re probably not being accurate with that statement. But I’ve got way better things to do like vacuum the house and clean the toilets before my holiday guests arrive tomorrow.

And as an aside, I find it interesting that you’d hang out at a place that has regularly libeled Matt Taibbi and Mark Ames in its comments section as pedophiles and woman abusers, without pushback by the supposed “academics” writing there.

Here’s some actual “journalism” on the topic in case you’re interested and want to bring it up in the future when one of your LGM commenter buddies starts spreading those types of lies:

Well said. I think as a proponent of transparency in the media Glenn owes readers an explanation for his tepid, kid-gloves approach to Fox and right wing media on the pages of The Intercept. While he’s at it he can explain his singleminded focus on denying or belittling troublesome evidence of possible collusion between Russia and Trump, to the point of this denial consuming almost his entire content on TI. While there have been obvious excesses , there is the chilling possibility that Trump is in the pocket of Putin and his plutocrats, but you’d never know that reading Greenwald. Why?

” there is the chilling possibility that Trump is in the pocket of Putin and his plutocrats, but you’d never know that reading Greenwald. Why? ”

Probably because he’s more concerned by the possibility of lunatics driving us towards nuclear war with Russia, rather than just accepting Hillary Clinton achieved the impossible in losing a chimpanzee.

I see, so let’s turn a blind eye to the possiblity that the lunatic with his finger on the button now may be in the pocket of Russian plutocrats. I think the answer to my question is in your last sentence. I think Glenn shares your narrative regarding Hillary and the election and does not want to upset it in anyway. Thanks for adding clarity.

“He’s more concerned about the possibility of lunatics driving us towards nuclear war with Russia, rather than just accepting…” Hillary Clinton’s loss, blah, blah, blah. Two of the biggest pieces of nonsense from GG and his followers in one sentence. I’m so tired of them repeating this crap. You worry so much about the all-powerful, all-seeing Hillary and the rest of the nefarious Democrats provoking war with Russia, and say very little about Donald Trump actively stoking tensions with North Korea. The difference is that GG’s focus is on a potential threat, while Trump’s reckless actions are an active reality. And the “can’t accept Hillary’s loss” garbage, Kellyanne Conway’s favorite talking point.

While he’s at it he can explain his singleminded focus on denying or belittling troublesome evidence of possible collusion between Russia . . . .”

I don’t believe, unless you can cite to Glenn’s work, that I’d agree he’s been “single-minded” in his focus, or that he’s “denied or belittled troublesome evidence of possible collusion . . . .”

Glenn has been at all times consistent on the topic of “possible collusion between Trump administration and Russia”–Glenn’s consistently and unequivocally stated that a thorough investigation and findings be made public (regardless of the outcome of that investigation) and until such time as that investigation is complete, he doesn’t choose to “speculate” on what is/is not “possible” or “troublesome”.

That you don’t like that position, which is the position of most rational people like me and many others no one could accuse us of being fans of the Trump administration, is because it is difficult to have the patience to see what a complete and thorough investigation might/will uncover. Showing that patience is difficult for those who want to see the Trump administration go down in infamy.

Now I’d like to see that as well, and have it be tied to the GOP as a whole like a lead balloon for decades going forward, but how that is accomplished matters. It needs to be done ethically and in such a way as not to be able to be assailed by the right as a partisan witch hunt (which of course it will be necessarily, but that’s why any facts and conclusions reached by Mueller’s team must be unassailable otherwise it will be counterproductive as a partisan matter).

In any event, I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on the issue you raised absent proof that he is doing what you assert he is doing.

I’m very disappointed to see rrheard taking the position that it is Bad for GG to go on Fox News. Now, If I have misread that position than I apologize at the outset and I hope that will be made very clear to me.

The rest of this note would then only be directed at all the OTHER people who constantly act like GG should pick and choose his mainstream news appearances based on ideological considerations.

There are no mainstream news outlets that have not lied in very very big ways to the public within the last year alone. It is completely stupid to pick some of them and say “I won’t show up!”. There is absolutely no reason to regard MSNBC as morally superior to Fox News. They don’t “mean well”.

Fake friends are far more damaging than declared enemies, and MSNBC are the ultimate fake friends of the left. They do NOT mean well. They are a bigger threat to leftward movement than Fox by quite a ways. It isn’t even close.

And it is particularly not cool to suggest that GG should give in to all the disingenous liberal calls that are made daily on his twitter feed. Liberals right now are most in need of being shown that their bogus “we only trust in facts and stuff” narrative is a bunch of arrogant bullshit. Their delusion that they come from the “reality-based community” is in no way harmed by GG appearing on Fox News —– and let’s also note right now: GG would be happy to go on MSNBC.

The reason why liberals are more in need of it — harsh treatment — is that they are potentially allies against creeping fascism, and right now they are not allies. They are dopes who get weepy about John McCain.

I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree about Glenn’s choice(s) to appear on Fox News or specifically Hannity’s program.

I don’t think MSNBC is “morally superior”, because I don’t think a corporation is anything other than an amoral/immoral entity in the first instance. It is a legal fiction created to limit the liability of its shareholders, executives and officers and to maximize the entity’s profits. Nothing more nothing less, by design. So I don’t impute concepts of morality to them in the first instance except and to the extent that by design they are amoral/immoral.

Having said that, when it comes to factual accuracy in their respective “journalistic endeavors,” if you think MSNBC and Fox are even in the same ballpark, then I’d ask if I can have some of what you’re smoking. They aren’t. Not even close. The topic has been studied repeatedly. Watching Fox makes people less informed–factually, on a whole host of issues.

As far as whether or not I’m much of a fan of MSNBC’s programming–I’m not. And that’s well known to anyone who follows my comments here over the years. But that’s partly because I don’t find much value in television journalism–its wholly incapable of doing anything other than treating issues in decontextualized soundbites. It’s why I read, not watch TV, to keep informed of “the news”. “TV news” is first and foremost “infotainment” not journalism. And the only thing on MSNBC I can stomach is the Chris Hayes show which I watch about once a month at most, or when Glenn is on one of its programs.

Again, not my point. My point is, and there can be a legitimate disagreement about this issue on balance (as Glenn and I disagree on this one obviously), which is “on balance is it better to have a point of view expressed on the propaganda arm of the Republican party, or to hold out for a different venue (where his brand and credibility are not misused or conflated for bad purposes) of which there are many for Glenn to make any points or arguments about which he feels strongly.”

Great post! I generally appreciate RRHeard’s posts but I agree with you on this one. As a side note, the real reason they will not invite Mr. Greenwald on MSNBC is they remember him taking Lawrence O’Donnel apart a few years ago, and they have gone so far right that they know they will be eviscerated and embarrassed by Glenn’s incredible quick and sharp wit…can’t have those highly paid propaganda-spewing entertainers humiliated in public.

I share your sentiments. I have always espoused patience, and I am open to the possibility that a thorough investigation might not implicate Trump (although the amount of smoke is extraordinary). I also think there is valuable reporting to be done in calling out the excesses by the so-called liberal media. I think something else is going on though, which clouds Glenn’s reporting and makes it so ‘selective.’ It’s the following narrative, one which is shared by many on this page, and which I find dangerous:

1) The Democrats lost because they did not go far enough to the left and because of party favoritism toward Hillary. (Incidentally, while I find the sentiment of swerving to the left laudable, I think they were doomed to lose because a) they’d been in power for 8 years b) the US white voters have become more racist in their old age and Trump played that card masterfully).
2) The Democrats have been taken over by Neo Cons and deserved to be punished at the polls. If the victor happens to be an unstable narcissist with zero understanding of geopolitics, so be it.
3) US hegemony must be broken and Trump is helpful in that regard. The theory is that Trump will somehow make the need to go even farther left only that much more obvious.
4) The Trump – Russia story only weakens the above narrative and strengthens the Democrats.
ERGO, the importance of the Russia story needs to be diminished.

Thanks for sharing so much of you likes, dislikes,hopes and dreams as well as your theories about how there still hope that some Russian collusion will be uncovered. Obviously we are the closest thing you have to friends so it’s nice that you’re so sharing, whether or not any of us give a $hi7 (we don’t). As for the Russian collusion, it’s been over a year. We’ve uncovered nothing, multiple folks have been caught fabricating lies, multiple folks have been fired, and we’ve discovered that the very people doing the investigating have treasonous deals with the Russians hiding in their own closets. Yet you cling to hope that some real thing will materialize from this fantasy story to make it real. And why the hope? Did you always suspect Trump to be a Russian agent? Do you really feel that treasonous alliance with a country with an economy the size of Italy is a bigger prize than being the President of the United States? Or that an elite businessman would make such an idiotic choice? Or did you simply hear some idiot reporter bleating it like a sheep and invested yourself in it being true against all logic and reason? I think that answer is obvious. Now you have gone so far as to challenge Greenwald to change his whole firsthand view of the facts to better match your view of Ron Paul, Fox News and this story. Seeing as how he’s your best imaginary friend and all. It’s sad, creepy and weird all rolled into one. Though lucky for you you found a kindred spirit in Alberto. Who has also suspended disbelief in all of reality just to occupy this position with you and a bunch of fired journos and FBI.

Are you aware that they make full size dolls of women that look and feel real? They even have lifelike orfices. I think this might be just the thing you need to help you with what’s obviously the real issue. Conspiracy theories can really get you worked up. Sometimes you need a little release. Given your limited options I think this is the best route for you. If only for the sake of Glenn and the other commenters here too.

“While he’s at it he can explain his singleminded focus on denying or belittling troublesome evidence of possible collusion between Russia and Trump, to the point of this denial consuming almost his entire content on TI. While there have been obvious excesses , there is the chilling possibility that Trump is in the pocket of Putin and his plutocrats, but you’d never know that reading Greenwald. Why?”

The Why part is SUPER simple. To quote an old expression, “there’s no there there.”

When anyone comes up with ANY non-imagined evidence, then perhaps it will deserve some attention. So far, the only “evidence” is a bunch of lies coming from known liars that amount to nothing but unattributed and unsupported allegation and, very importantly, even if you accept what they said was true there are two key facts that would emerge:

1) OK, so say they were developing “back chanels”. Fine. I WANT the leaders of the two nations with the largest thermonuclear stockpiles to have back channels – might prevent a thermonuclear detonation some day. Certainly beats openly calling for shooting down of Russian planes, by the way – remember? Clinton’s “No Fly Zone” she wanted to create? And;

2) There’s still no credible argument that the outcome of the presidential election was altered in any meaningful way. If you think there is such an argument, it means you’ve got SERIOUS denial going on about why your favorite candidate lost.

First of all, you are the one who has chosen to speak about backchannels. Although that is certainly nebulous legal territory that should be explored, that is not what I am referring to. Rather I am talking about 1) owing money to the Russians, either through loans from kleptocrats or dirty Deutschbank money. 2) Kompromat — Compromising material the Russians may have on Trump, an asset they’ve been pursuing since the 1980s. Read Luke Harding’s book.

Second, your banging on the same key as others on this page about Hillary says more about your biases.

What’s important is “on whose side” or “to what effect” those biases lay. Mine are always for truth over manipulation, for The People over the rich, for progress over status quo. It’d be nice if you share these biases with me.

BTW, I haven’t seen your allegations 1 or 2 in the media at all. I wonder why that is. It could definetly be that I don’t pay attention to Main Stream Media because it’s been proven time and again to be much more propaganda than truth. However, I’d think that some Progressives would bang on that drum if it were true. Feel free to provide evidence if you like, just make sure it’s evidence and not bloviating opinion or conjecture.

Sorry, I don’t see any mountain of evidence. Nor do I see exemplary reporting. The most it’s got is a rather mild allegation that some rich dude “gifted” Trump $50M. I don’t have time to look into the claims, but even if true, so what? Have you paid any attention to the millions given the Clintons through the Clinton Foundation, including from Russian Oligarchs?

Besides, perhaps you missed this one at the bottom:

This article initially cited a Bloomberg story reporting that special counsel Robert Mueller subpoenaed Deutsche Bank to produce “documents on its relationship with Trump and his family.” That reference has now been removed. That Bloomberg story was later corrected with the news that Trump’s and his family’s records were not targeted.

So… whatever you might have thought was “there” with the Bloomberg story has proven itself to be untrue.

When “troublesome evidence” is actually nothing more than unproven assertions and allegations from anonymous sources with an agenda, belittling it is the right thing to do lest the overly credulous simply take the allegations as fact and simply regurgitate them as accepted fact on forums and blogs.

“While he’s at it he can explain his singleminded focus on denying or belittling troublesome evidence of possible collusion between Russia and Trump, to the point of this denial consuming almost his entire content on TI.”

An accusation of “denying or belittling troublesome evidence of possible collusion between Russia and Trump” without a single example of the denied and belittled evidence that troubled you is a bit vague.

Here’s a point-by-point rebuttal: “No, he has not.”

“. . .there is the chilling possibility that Trump is in the pocket of Putin and his plutocrats, but you’d never know that reading Greenwald. Why?”

That’s not true.

If you scroll-up right now, you can read an article Glenn wrote about some of the evidence of possible Russian/Putin -Trump ties. Even if you don’t read it, you are still posting on the comments thread of an article Glenn wrote about some evidence of possible Russian/Putin – Trump ties.

So of course we know about the “chilling possibility.” By reading articles like this one, we also know about the evidence.

First, so Lawyers, Guns & Money is the ‘other quarters’ filling Gator’s head that Glenn is a Russian asset! Figures./
*nevertheless, to his credit, it was gator who correctly pointed out Glenn’s work productivity of late is far, far below the standards of Russian assets. .. and I would add I think Putin dislikes the ‘gay’ more than Trump, if such a thing is possible.

Fifthly, wrt to Glenn’s appearance of FOX etc., etc.,: it’s not like MSNBC is knocking down Glenn’s door for his pov, iykwim.
*in fact, ever since Glenn ate David Gregory’s lunch live on Meet The Press … I suspect it’s been rather slim pickins’ for poor Glenn./

Lastly, I too am glad Glenn has informed everyone he is on a short paternity leave … I was beginning to worry about him.
*note. I doubt Glenn fully understands, yet, but, in a way, he will be on leave [with the children] for the rest of his whole life!

If anyone ever wants to truly know the “root cause” of why the worldwide ctrl-left act the way they do then you really need to watch Yuri Bezmenov American Hero explain it all, in simple understandable and shockingly recognizable phrases like “Social Justice”. In 1984 no less. This is a WOW video for anyone that wants to know the truth.https://youtu.be/R3nXvScRazg

Propaganda, call it what it is… Read Edward Bernays. Most, when confronted with the fact that they’ve been lied to for most of their lives, cannot except it. Cognitive dissonance & the trauma induced by MSM has done a number on so many. Been through this long ago. Seek the truth, and deal with it.

Your comment about being lied to all their lives and the cognitive dissonance reminds me of an exchange with my father, a guy with three degrees (engineering, nuclear physics and law), and who, when this conversation started, was working on a fourth (he never actually completed).

When I was, oh, somewhere between 10 and 14 years old I had an unintended debate with my father about media lies. I argued most of it was filled with propaganda at every turn, that the way arguments were framed was also slanted and often a lie in itself, and that they all had the same bias – namely, for the status-quo and, generally against any change whatsoever. He argued that 1) they all make mistakes, 2) that his friend who founded and was editor of a major underground newspaper had said that he’d never read a fully accurate article on anything, and especially not on ones where he was present at the time whatever was being reported about, and; 3) that on anything meaningful, the media self-corrects by the correct data being presented by another media outlet. This, he argued, was why one needed to pay attention to multiple media outlets, and keep abreast of what’s said, lest one get stuck on something already proven untrue.

We agreed to disagree and let it go at that.

Some MANY decades later, oh, what 30 years-ish later, out of the blue he told me that he remembered that debate and that it had bothered him all that while and he had FINALLY come around to my way of thinking. He even thanked me for planting the seed into his mind as it had gnawed at him for all that time. (The straw that had broken the camel’s back surrounded the events related to and following from 9/11/01 like Shrub’s war in Iraq, but his comment wasn’t about that, but in general.)

He remarked how he thought it odd I should have had that insight when so young. I replied that it wasn’t remarkable at all since he had, when I was 5 or so, said to me that “you can teach yourself how to think”, and then had proceeded to introduce the idea of “framing”, and “point of view” and how one should try and look at issues from points of view other than the one that seems most natural to you. He used examples like the founders of the USA as both patriot and at the same time traitor. Further, he pointed out how the truth of anything is divorced from judgements we may make about it, and therefore our word choices which further shape a given framing. Try describing the exact same thing from an opposing frame or point of view, he urged. …All extremely logical and divorced from emotion…

I wish we all had such useful insights implanted into our young brains as early as they can accept the concepts. There’d be a lot less cognitive dissonance in the world!

My moment came when I was about 17 and realized I had thought tarring and feathering was kind-of funny. My immigrant mother was shaken by it, recognizing it for the torture it is. Then I read up on it and learned that she was right. It is gruesome, actually. Many targets die very slowly and wish to die more quickly.

I thought it was a joke only because I was born in the US. No other “reason.”

I grew up in Louisiana, and now and again spoke with older people (mostly when I was in rural parts visiting grandparents), nearly always blacks, who had been tared – not always feathered – and they spoke of the horror of it. I always knew from a young age it was both real and horrific. It’s only from your remarks I reflect on some thinking it a joke. … I know some refer to it flippantly, but it hadn’t occurred to me they think it a joke.

Your cynicism is revealing. Why don’t you just come out and say that you’re not interested in hearing or knowing the truth? That you’re only interested in hearing how Good and Righteous Hillary and the Dems are.

You get snide because that’s what you deserve. You aren’t really looking for truth. You twist yourself into a pretzel to validate anything the Dems say or do.

You know things are lies when you can find facts that contradict the statements. And that’s what Greenwald does. He provides facts and evidence in support of exposing MSM lies and bad behaviors.

But you aren’t interested in that which is why you always try, to no avail, attempts to twist or refute Greenwald. And your responses and arguments always lead to the same conclusion. It’s that Trump is evil and people should have voted for HRC.

Simply put, you are partisan. And partisans don’t want truth, they want to convince others of the validity of their position. period.

So, the fact that you get snide from me is simply because you are being dishonest in your original statement when you say you want truth, which is exactly the opposite of what you really want, which is agreement.

Now it’s not enough to simply read my mind, you must also tell me what you think I deserve.

But at least you have a metric — a measure for, if not truth, at least a means to determine untruth.

You know things are lies when you can find facts that contradict the statements.

I might suggest that people who find lies do so because that is what they seek. But for you, apparently, a significant measure of truth is consistency. Contradictions reveal untruth. Further, if you can reveal untruth, you are left with … voila! … the truth. Apparently that’s your claim.

I don’t think it works like that — which is why I find Mr. Greenwald’s discovery of a “debacle” — no … wait, “the most humiliating debacle in ages” — a bit of an exaggeration.

In short, this most humiliating debacle in ages amounts to the inaccurate reading of a date on a document by some CNN employee — a mistake which CNN corrected within hours. Right? (oops, there I go seeking agreement. My bad.)

I just don’t see how these facts lead to the sensational claim of media dishonesty. I think the facts show exactly the opposite. CNN’s willingness to self-correct shortly after they make a mistake indicates less than a humiliating debacle. It seems to me exactly thing a responsible journalistic organization would do after having realized its mistake.

Or do you disagree? Oops. There I go seeking agreement again. My apologies.

It seems to me that by your own standard of inconsistency between statements and facts, we have found an untruth. A misread date on a document — soon corrected — is not the media’s most humiliating debacle in ages.

Further, as I’ve stated elsewhere (you’re not responsible for knowing what I’ve written elsewhere, I realize), this article fits a rather ugly pattern Mr. Greenwald has displayed at least since November 2016.

Finally, in response to your mind-reading, I don’t give a shit whether you (or anyone else agrees) with me. I think reasonable or common sensical is a big part of discerning what is true.

I truly wonder what others think when they’re shouting their “hallelujahs” for Mr. Greenwald. So I ask.

If you don’t believe me, that’s not my problem to solve. Maybe put your clairvoyance into overdrive and read your own mind.

Further, as I’ve stated elsewhere (you’re not responsible for knowing what I’ve written elsewhere, I realize), this article fits a rather ugly pattern Mr. Greenwald has displayed at least since November 2016.

Your partisanship is showing.

Finally, in response to your mind-reading, I don’t give a shit whether you (or anyone else agrees) with me. I think reasonable or common sensical is a big part of discerning what is true.

Actually, I think you do care a great deal. Otherwise, you wouldn’t keep bringing up the 2016 election. Unfortunately, the past will have to stay right where it is. It’s not going anywhere. You will simply need to move past it.

Finally, in response to your mind-reading

It’s not Mind-Reading when you spill your guts out in front of all the Intercept’s readers and posters. You might as well wear a sign around your neck that says, “Democratic Partisan here, everyone.”

If you don’t believe me, that’s not my problem to solve. Maybe put your clairvoyance into overdrive and read your own mind.

I don’t believe you. And it’s not really a problem for me.

Read My Own Mind……isn’t that the same thing as saying what I mean? I think it’s actually you who needs to be more introspective. You might want to first try and understand why you are having such a hard time dealing with loss.

There are TWO lists there, actually. The one was from suggestions from Progressives who answered the question you pose. The other list is from the beginning of the suggestion about fake news sources last year, during the Primary – dates, citations are on the page. …If it’s a source that’s on that list, I’d tend to trust it because it’s on the list The Powers That Be do not want us using – and therefore, it must be pretty good!

I noticed this morning when the NYC bombing happened that FOX NEWS was the only station reporting on it for over a half hour while MSNBC and CNN continued with FAKE anti-Trump garbage. The sad thing is that the bombing took place right outside their studios.

They did announce it and had cameras on the area and said they would cover it as soon as they had more info which they did. But you like my husband were quick to pounce! That’s how media get the news wrong…by rushing to be first.

The extension of the dnc and Hillary campaign otherwise known as “the media” is so corrupt and one sided I’m not sure what they can do to get credibility back. It has been so obvious from election night – when network anchors were CRYING Hillary lost – and thank God for that – to network anchors CRYING on the Sunday morning shows. I thought Martha was going to lose it after every word she uttered. The presses absolute HATRED for President Trump and that of congressional democrats is has harmful as it is disgusting.

This isn’t a recent problem – the liberal fake news media has “errored” again conservatives with their fake news for decades now – I’ve been paying attention to politics since the late 80s and I can’t think of a single instance where the liberal media has posted a fake news article that actually benefited a conservative.

Farcical. The MSM–especially CNN and MSNCB–are such shills for the Left that they should be embarrassed! Yellow journalism went out of fashion with the American Civil War, bu they INSIST we want to be lied to!

first of all these pathetic stooges have been lying since day 1..lest we forget their iraqis throwing kuwaiti babies outta incuabators. wmds, jessica lynch. man,,,so many. i think the only collusion going on is the deep state with it’s media boot lickers. operation mockingbird? there is no accident in this so called stupidity..it’s all by design. the gullible rubes get the big story but always miss the retraction. again, the ptb know this and use it to their advantage. it astonishes me that any one would believe anything said by the msm. whether intentional or incompetent, they just are never right.

The question is not “How did ‘multiple sources’ all get the same dates and facts wrong?” The real question is, “Were there ever any sources at all?”

When CNN or CBS News starts a story with those familiar words, “Multiple sources are telling us…,” you should consider the possibility that they are just repeating a story heard on another network, and that no such sources exist.

As Mr. Greenwald points out, even after being deceived and discredited by their “sources,” the networks still refuse to reveal their names. Why conceal the names of unreliable sources who only discredit your news organization?

The obvious answer is that they never had any sources. CBS simply assumes that CNN or MSNBC did their due diligence, and in order to meet the demands of an hour-by-hour cable news cycle, they can throw caution, along with any sense of professional ethics, to the winds.

“Just tell our viewers we sourced it – It came from CNN,” is the most likely order barked by some second-rate news editor. And, as Churchill famously said, “A lie travels half-way around the world before the truth can get it’s pants on.”

There are a LOT of “most humiliating debacles in ages” for the US media! They just don’t learn! In their rabid hatred of Trump they just can’t help but seize upon ANY nugget of negative news–regardless of the source or voracity of the story!

Why is mass immigration and “diversity” demanded in ALL white populations and ONLY white populations?
Why is no global place or institution ever “too yellow” and “too black”?
Why is Open Borders a white ‘privilege’?
Does “diversity” just mean Chasing Down Whitey?
That’s why we say #White Geno Cide
That’s why we say #Anti White

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that most of the countries that are “white” became “white” through #whitegenocide of non-“white” peoples. In this case, we’re talking about genocide through extermination, not through the destruction of settler-colonial privilege, which is what #whitegenocide really means.

As for “#whitegenocide” in Europe, most of those countries forfeited any claim to a right to protect their borders from in-migration when they participated in the massive European invasion, plunder and worse of Africa, the Western Hemisphere and much of Asia.

Please posit how the European countries that are majority white became that way through genocide/extermination.

Yes there was the fight for control between Muslims and Christians in parts of Europe in the late middle ages, and there was the WW II era Nazi extermination of Jews. But, “whites” have settled in Europe for thousands of years.

As for the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. there were no “nations” in a political sense in these places before white settlement.

I could have been clearer in that my first paragraph was meant to apply to settler colonies — like the U.S., which has by far the largest “white* population and is the country under discussion here. I added the second paragraph to deal with the countries whose populations are now lumped together as “white” — an identity that was basically created in the United Snakes to unite people of Euro0pean origin against both the native people’s and, even more crucially, against Africans who could then be treated as an “other” and deprived of the rights that other indentured servants had.

But what does the fact that many of the native peoples didn’t have what the European invaders recognized as “nations”, although many in fact did, have to do with anything? It sounds like the Zionist claim that a country called Palestine never existed and that therefore the Palestinians have no rights to the lands their ancestors inhabited for many hundreds of years. Settler colonists apparently like to borrow each other’s bullshit.

I really think the national media just don’t understand. Their contempt for Trump is obvious but this is first time they blatantly have shown their hand as being Democrats. Probably always have been but now obvious and we realize when you have utter disrespect you are angry…especially when our country is experiencing soaring success with stick market jobs explosion and someone who is not a globalist first but an American first. It is obvious reporters have enjoyed their elitist position making millions of dollars to be honest is outrageous for greed breeds power which breeds corruption. In DC the swamp a cesspool of corruption as well as media and that is changing. Trump dropped a bomb and the power elite are outraged. Just like #takeaknee NFL the media will self destruct as Americans turn away and continue in the glow of increasing salaries and business expansion. Media lives in a fantasy world wherein most Americans are enjoying the real world of putting America back on the hill spreading the light for freedom destroying elitists replacing with men of character and honor.

“How did CNN end up aggressively hyping such a spectacularly false story? They refuse to say.” These referenced stories should be taken to the dean of the Columbia School of Journalism with the demand that they run a college course on contemporary news reporting: “The Intertwining of the Democrat Party’s Agenda with Journalists, AND how It Killed Objective Journalism.”

Don’t hold your breath waiting for transparency on how CNN managed this whopper. We’re still waiting to find out how Donna Brazile, who worked at CNN, received the debate questions (prior to the CNN debates) and gave them to Hillary. A transparent investigation into that debacle could have gone a long way toward restoring CNN’s reputation.

Glenn, your level of detail is impressive. I think you’re smart enough to know 44 made up the Russia narrative to gang rape Trump’s presidency. Glad to see you are on the side of the victim here. It’s unfair that both the dems and the media are ganging up on him. Hope you get to be the hero that exposes it all. Keep on rocking my brother.

These particular companies, and their like, are not in the journalism business anymore, but entertainment, marketing, and propaganda. Of course they are not making errors, but spreading misinformation designed to please their audience, increase their profit, and smear innocents who do not support the politics of the people running the companies.

There is a theory that this Sep 4 date and not Sep 14 was ‘poison bait’ to see who was leaking confidential information to the media.
If so it worked brilliantly.
Inspector General has been running an investigation for several months.
Look to see which big name senator resigns for ‘personal reasons’ in the very near future.

@Glenn Greenwald – You just be doing something right. As people on both sides of the argument are commenting in equal numbers. Everyone needs to realize BOTH sides – so called ‘liberal’ media AND so-called ‘conservative’ media are doing the same hatchet job to journalism. Chomsky had it right. Mass media is no longer about accuracy, it about entertainment and ratings.
What i liked about your post was you didn’t really make your post left/right. Focus on good, accurate journalism. Nowadays its mostly about opinion.

It is too bad that groupthink still seems to prevail. I don’t see how anyone looking at reality can believe anything written by the private propaganda ministry known as the legacy or “mainstream” media.

Even if those three media outlets were to release a follow-up apologizing for the false news, none of it would matter. The people only want to see what they want to see. And they want to see Trump getting flamed.

TRUMP LIES EVERYDAY .THIS WAS A MISTAKE MAYBE EVEN A SET UP. DPN’T WORRY REGARDLESS OF THIS YOURE SOCIAL SECURITY IS STOLEN AND YOU’LL BE WITH NO HEALTCARE LOWER WAGES AND HOGHER TAXES WITH PEDOPHILE RAPISTS DICTATING WHAT YOURE ALLOWED TO DO WITH YOUR BODY.DON’T WORRY YOURE FUCKT AND NOT BECAUSE THE MEDIA MADE A MISTAKE.YOU WATCH OX NOOSE 24 7 AND THEY HAVE YET TO EVER REPORT THE TRUTH.YOU’VE BEEN BAMBOOZLED AMERICA

Look, if you’re still listening to the so-called mainstream media, you’re doing it wrong, and you have been for years.
Cut the cord, kick your feet up, and relax. Paralyze the Jewish media in the only place they can be hurt: their wallet. And, if you think I’m kidding about the Jews, take a look at who controls the only five remaining media outlets in the US, not to mention the Federal Reserve Bank.

Do the Jews have secret meetings to discuss their domination of the world or is it merely a coincidence assuming what you’ve said is true? Is it a coincidence that white males sit in virtually every position of real power on Wall Street, corporate America and in Washington D.C.?

Instead of asking here, you better go ask them how they are doing it if you are curious to know how exactly, but don’t be surprised if you found out that they extended their grip slowly, carefully, and gradually in all levels of the US govt. While they rest of us not interested to meddle with stinky hooknoses’ craps anymore, we know for certain what their game is and how they are playing it, as some of us are still remained untouched from their propaganda machines and lies, and can see the reality as it is, and have studied enough to able to connect the dots to understands what’s going on. The more zoos are insisting on their lies, with the presumption of that may be somehow they will be finally able to mislead us all, know for sure, that does not gonna happen. Rather with continuous insistence on lies and propaganda they are burying themselves in their own cesspool of craps to the point of no return. They better remember that after WWII it’s the USA, which lent them a helping hand to way out of the grave they dug for themselves, but next time probably the USA won’t like to make its hand dirty again.

Love the graphic backdrop of the White House in RED… Any little way they can, CNN, through visual cues and semantics, is trying to tear down Trump as hard as their little brains can. It’s like petulant children who know the truth but will not admit it.

Common refrain: “The U.S. media has always been leftist and anti-Republican.”

Truth: The “swiftboat veterans for truth” and George W. Bush would tend to throw water on that theory. More examples?

* The treatment of “leftist” Bernie Sanders by the MSM
* The treatment of Occupy Wall Street by the MSM
* The firing of Phil Donahue for questioning George W. Bush’s war
* The NYT covering up George W. Bush’s illegal surveillance until after he was elected.
* The NYT pushing false stories about yellowcake and aluminum tubes and whatever else they said.
* The liberal MSM totally savaging Al Gore for things like Love Canal, earthtones, “inventing” the Internet, and totally ignoring the substance of his campaign – which is exactly what they did with Bernie Sanders and during the runup to the Trump – Clinton election.
* The refusal to run reports that are harmful to any given corporation’s bottom line. Examples include Monsanto, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Apple, GE, numerous Wall Street investment houses, etc.

The US media turned into the agitprop arm of the Democratic Party decades ago, so none of this particularly surprises me nor is the level of falsehood any more egregious than what has come before. What’s different is that the other side has learned to push back rather than just lie down and take it, and it turns out that it didn’t require very much to knock down the pseudo-intellectual left’s house of cards. What’s great about The Trumpening is that all of this is finally in the open, and nobody can ever again deny it. Say what you will about the orange prince himself, but his mere presence has done a damn good job of flushing out the vipers. It’s amazing.

Abject nonsense. The U.S. media took it upon themselves to destroy the Clinton presidency, the Al Gore campaign (“earth tones” and love canal, anyone?), Howard Dean (the “Dean scream”) and so on – while they also covered up George W. Bush’s warrantless illegal surveillance until after he was re-elected, lied to the American public and the world to sell the Iraq war, fired anti-war Democratic voices (Phil Donahue ring a bell?) etc. etc. etc.

See you’re one of the long time believers in the myth of a “liberal media” which hasn’t been the case since the early 1970s. The media is routinely pro-Republican, pro-Pentagon (no matter who’s in power) and pro-corporation/Wall Street (remember how the Occupy protests were mocked? Glenn can tell you about it – search his archives on the Guardian or use Google). The American right has been pushing this nonsense for decades and the very recent turn toward pro-Hillary anti-Trump reporting is what Greenwald correctly calls out as dangerous namely because it is so recent and so severe – such that it leads to the types of mis-reporting he cites in his article (and in numerous others in the past). It’s also dangerous because it gives credence to people like you who have been making the claim – with zero evidence – for the last 30 years.

You’re 100% wrong and it only took me 30 seconds to come up with numerous counter-examples to your thesis. BTW, why don’t you provide some evidence for this alleged pro-Democrat agitprop from the U.S. media from some time before 2001?

To claim that the media is Democrat friendly doesn’t mean what many of you apparently think it means. The Democrats are as anti-socialism as any of the rightwing knuckledraggers that started reading the Intercept only when occasional Greenwald pieces conveniently aligned with their agendas.

Do realize that you’re addressing the beliefs of a set of people who exist at such an efficient nexus of propaganda and ignorance that they’re able to be sold on profoundly absurd ideas like “the Nazis were leftists!” and “Obama is a Socialist/Communist Wall Street whore!”

Seriously, you have to be completely clueless about 20th century history to be told that the Nazis were left-wing and believe it, even if it’s a great partisan fantasy that irons out the annoying complexity of reality in favor of a dumb, comforting rightleft = goodevil world view. As far as the Nazis go, the ‘Socialist’ was added to the party name as a prop to appeal to German workers who might otherwise be drawn to the Communist camp in the chaotic interwar years; the name “National Socialist German Workers Party” would be rather like calling something the “Conservative Liberal American Families Party” today. Most capitalists and right-wing types in American and Europe were very enthusiastic about the Nazis, because they were ferociously anti-Communist and anti-labor-union, and they were making Germany very attractive for foreign investment. Which combined with Nazi doctrine about International Socialism and Bolshevism being Jewish conspiracies is about as far from ‘leftist’ as you can get in the inter-war years.

No, the Nazis were NOT leftists you stupid f*cking moron. Not by any reasonable definition of the term. In fact they systematically killed or ostracized any true leftists. Why can’t you rightwing fanatics ever be bothered to learn history – American or otherwise?

I was specifically commenting on the ability of some people to simultaneously believe he was a neoliberal hypercapitalist *and* a Socialist/Communist. Which should be so obviously absurd that it requires no clarification.

Occupy was stupid, and aggressive. All ridicule was deserved. Where’s your discussion of media covering for the sick Antifa? Gleefilly reporting and returning to a dead girl – who should have been elsewhere engaging in productive activities – to smear anti-collectivists after mayor, city management, and governor deliberately herded two groups into physical proximity and stood back? The failures to harp on Obama crowd conspiracies to destroy our fundamental rights such as fast n furious and control of social media to stifle expression?

You’re an idiot and you’re stupid and aggressive. You can’t provide specifics and you expect me/us to take at face value your moronic and citation-free assertions that Occupy deserved ridicule?

And let’s talk “antifa” – Which media outlets are you alleging gave them positive coverage? But wait – now you’re alleging that the right wing proto-Nazi who ran the girl down was justified because she “should have been” elsewhere? You’re a MORON, dude.

And of course you think that Trump’s tiny crowd (and other tiny aspects about him) were and are much bigger than they are. It’s par for the course. Your orange idiot in office didn’t have anywhere near the size crowds that the black Manchurian candidate did – it’s just a fact, idiot.

You propagandized/brainwashed right wing goons are all alike and utterly predictable. You’re just the other side of the Obamabot coin and you don’t seem capable of realizing it.

Read ‘Necessary Illusions’. Yes, I know you probably think Chomsky is some left wing Nutbar but he clarifies very well left and right are both in the same position to the maintenance of elitist(m). Arguing left/right is a head fake. Its all about maintenance of power and money. Most of the visible politicians around the world are – knowingly or not – puppets. The system of elites in global power do not need to purposefully collude and work together. They all have the same interests at heart and support each other knowingly or not.

Your comment makes common sense. Govt’ has a prioritised alignment with business/ commerce as it forms the basis of any reasonably developed society. Legislation provides the guidance and it is only in very extreme circumstances where the social conscience is swayed to levels of intolerance that our human nature is put on public display, people revolt, govt crumbles etc etc… This has happened throughout history on more than one occasion and it will continue to happen so long as we don’t become some sort of fully mechanised version of our good human selves! Where there becomes a disconnect in the paradigm however is a world over burdened with the ability to keep up with the pace. While the dynamics of industry continue to evolve there has been a move from an economic model whereby the commercial trade of goods and services has rapidly being surpassed by the trade in a subset of new “criteria” . This so called “criteria” (I use this for lack of a better word and because much of it cant be defined as either a good or a service) has been largely driven by the tech sector and has literally disrupted the “status quo” as we know it. Technological improvement has increased our appetite for a better more efficient services/experiences Our ability to quantify the value associated with this new set of criteria subsequently has come under enormous pressure (most notably in the legal and accounting professions, the two that basically determine the rate at which modern day commerce is accelerated).If it is difficult to define a category for something new it either falls under an existing category or a new one is created. A newly defined category can present legislators with a difficult task. Recently alot of pressure has been heaped on respective governments from the view that they are not in touch with a media hyped agenda. In a country like the United States where the corporation determines the ebb and flow of commerce, the growth/expansion of certain sectors over recent years (most notably tech’) has placed a lot of strain on the ability of government to juggle its load. The flow on effect of multi billion dollar corporations aggressively pursuing interests in the tech sector can be difficult to qualify and unfortunately if not handled with diligently can lead to chaos). I would think the tipping point would be a world where code crunchers were able to design a virtual workplace where employees were interacting with a virtual domain that had no purpose other than to keep them engaged in a task. It would mean they would never know the outcomes of their input but instead be simply complicit in the knowledge that they were employed. If an entire economy was run this way it could upgrade its way through any real recession.

YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS! ? not one mention of the vicious hate mongering right wing outlets. We have hard right news literally encouraging white supremacy but let’s ratchet up the war on mainstream media, ok. Go back to your extremist think tank.

I continue to be glad that the Russiagate story unravels. one reason is unselfish, one reason is selfish

unselfish reason: Those invested in this story have been up to no good: trying to keep the Democratic party from moving left by shoring up excuses for the incompetent, corrupt people who have been running that party. Because Russiagate began as a protective measure for them, that then captured the imagination of many people who are not actually bad people but just prone to wishful thinking, it has been a terrible drag on what could be a time of resurgent leftward energy among fairly normie people.

selfish reason: Man, if my bullshit detector is on the fritz then I’m in big trouble, but it seems that in late 2016 it was working just fine. And every time I have willingly gotten shit for maintaining this just makes it sweeter when every week it looks worse for the purveyors of this cockamamie cold war nostalgia trip than it did the week before. Revenge is a fermented beverage, and this one is having a nice slow work up time and it’s going to be so good to drink.

“I continue to be glad that the Russiagate story unravels. one reason is unselfish, one reason is selfish

unselfish reason: Those invested in this story have been up to no good: trying to keep the Democratic party from moving left by shoring up excuses for the incompetent, corrupt people who have been running that party. ”

Oh, come now: that is actually quite the selfish reason. I mean, that’s your own project, regardless of journalistic integrity. What on earth does hoping the Dem Party moves left have to do with the accuracy or lack thereof of the Trump/Russia reporting? I also want it to move left; that doesn’t mean I need journalists to ignore the obvious, glaring questions about the connections between the current president and Russia.

Yes, I’ve had to take a lot of shit for insisting on some real and credible evidence of Russia manipulating the election. I don’t even argue about this anymore, I just email links to stories like this one.

‘Blame Russia’ was simply an easy and lazy tactic, given the breakdown in relations following the coup in Ukraine (and Russian reaction, that humiliated the US powers that be as they had their pants pulled down by Putin’s military planners).

It is fortunate that they chose to blame a nation that is genuinely dangerous to the US, rather than embarking on another Iraq-style demonisation of a basket-case country. Consider if the DNC had decided to point the finger at Venezuela, for example. What would the body-count be now?

I just have to wonder; if the media is controlled by the tribe, but so is the Drumpf admin, what does that say about all these phony, headline grabbing events that do nothing but distract and confuse the masses into thinking that the mainstream media is really against Drumpf when all they’re doing is covering up for the corrupted Congress and the military industrial complex. I mean what the hell is this country still doing in Afghanistan? Why are there troops in Syria and Africa, and when the corrupted Congress approved the latest insane budget for the military, there wasn’t a peep among these clowns who want to play it like they’re doing anything towards the preservation of the Republic. Clinton, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Obama, Rice, Power, Biden, and everyone else involved in the 911 crime/cover up and all these wars based on lies still walk among free men while people like ol’ Glenn Greenwald, who never met a 911 truther he could stand toe to to with, turn these nothing burgers into giant whoppers that start fading away as soon they’re injected into the publics short term attention span.
You people are becoming more and more of an obvious joke daily, and you don’t even know that you don’t know.

It is disheartening to see that most of the commentators here have a heart in the right place, but eye on the wrong thing. The media has been biased for many decades. They are just — most unfortunately — getting to the point now when they believe full-throated left advocacy is hardly worth denying.

But the big story above is the ever-mounting evidence that the intelligence community in the U.S. is continuing the slow-rolling soft coup, and not even POTUS seems able to strike any telling blow against it.

They are daily doing what they want the world to believe the Russians did; i.e, attempt to direct American politics. Whatever valid fears we may have of Russian interdiction in our domestic politics, our own government intell apparatchiks doing the same is much more frightening.

It is “disheartening” to see that although you get much of it right in your post, you have fallen for the liberal media myth… and you most probably conflate liberalism with leftism… two completely different isms, I assure you. The media is profoundly biased toward the status quo, boosting the police, the military, Israel, wall to wall sports and weather, and hyper capitalist-orgasmo stock market coverage.

The corporate media talking heads of Fox, MSNBC, and CNN are all part of the show. I am not entertained by these jackasses and their fake partisan garbage. Policy means nothing to them.

There is no left in the mainstream media otherwise you would see real war coverage and debates about war and peace. You would see the CIA, NSA, DIA, and the FBI raked over the coals instead of worshiped fawningly by these pathetic lapdogs. You would not see so called liberals sucking up to war criminals. You would see coverage of the terrorist war in Yemen that is killing so many children and their parents… with our tax dollars. You would see real coverage of the Israeli’s illegal war of aggression against the trapped population in Gaza. There is no end to the stories THEY DO NOT COVER. That is the trick they play. Keep falling for it, or ditch them all. There are a lot of highly-paid sellout whores masquerading as quasi-leftists and telling gullible Democratic party half-wits what to think, I’ll give you that.

If you are going to use the term “left” at least use it accurately. You will stand out in the crowd of idiots who don’t. You can have the word liberal, I’m certainly done with it. Today’s liberals are yesterday’s Republicans. And a pox on both the Democrats and Republicans for their very powerful and well-financed con against the public. The choice they suggest for us either Tweedle-Dumpsterfire or Tweedle Deepshit. I choose NO.

Large media corporations are, really, only held accountable to their shareholders. The Trump presidency is a ratings bonanza that is bringing everyone down into the social media swamp in a rush to “break news.” It seems no one will walk away from this administration, Republicans or Democrats, without being scarred in the process. And that applies especially to the media, who are shouting nonsense from both sides.

The lying, far left extremist fake news fascist propagandists that call themselves journalists in the US lame stream media do not deserve any respect. They have given up any credibility they might undeservingly had and exposed their true selves for everyone to see. Anyone who believes anything they publish is a fool. Trump is right to attack them; they deserve nothing but derision.

The instant way to tell if one of these conservative guys is full of shit is whether they refer to a “far-left mainstream media”.

Like LOL you utter fucking morons, no such thing exists in the United States of America. These are huge corporations (CNN, WaPo, NYT, MSNBC, etc.) and they probably hate the idea of socialism more than you knuckle-draggers because it might actually cost them money. Unlike you dumbfucks who actually don’t know anything except the stupid nursery rhyme free market bullshit you suck on like a baby bottle.

The MSM are DC Insiders or wannabe DC Insiders. The Journalists, like many politicians they support, like Socialism b/c in such a system THEY will be the permanent Ruling Class.

If free-markets continue then the trend of cord-cutting will render many of them making a lot less money, especially the liars like the ones in this article, and that list includes quite a few well known MSM programs, from Talking Heads to the Producers.

Even a Trump hater has to be upset at all the false hope they have blown up their backsides by the likes of CNN and MSNBC.

The Journalists, like many politicians they support, like Socialism b/c in such a system THEY will be the permanent Ruling Class.

More unsupportable nonsense. If any reporters/journalists happen to favor programs that promote social welfare and access to healthcare, it’s probably because most of them are poor – thanks to the right leaning corporations that employ almost all of them.

You modern righties are either insane or just totally brainwashed. The MSM is as anti-“free stuff” as even the most strident right-leaning American authoritarian crony capitalist.

Mark (Warner), I was following your arguments and agreed with most of what you have been saying until this last entry. It is perfectly obvious to me that large corporations favor socialism, or, rather fascism which is the logical end result of socialism, as long as the beneficiaries are themselves. And, the main beneficiaries of the current socialist/fascist system are large corporations, especially big banks. Once you grant the legal authority to loot to the government, is it any wonder that the ones with the most money are able to direct most of that loot to themselves?

I welcome and appreciate your sane comments regarding blaming everything bad on the Jews. It would be nice if you could show a little more sanity in regard to the left/right political spectrum sham. There is no difference between the leadership of the left and right in this country in regard to any substantial policy issues. The only difference is in their rhetoric and which rich corporations benefit from their efforts. What little remains of whatever free market components of our economy which ever existed, is the only thing that ever boosted the fortunes of the common people. The State is the looting arm of the rich, and can only server them, it has never, does not now, and never can, benefit the common person.

What exists now in this country is no more than 10% free market. What is left is roughly half socialism and half fascism, to the extent that these two sides of the same coin can even be distinguished from each other.

Your mistake is in believing that the so-called “left” has any real representation or power in American politics. It doesn’t. The Democrats are NOT left-leaning. If you can’t grasp that then I cannot help you.

Exactly right. I just finished entering a comment in response to a guy who claims that the U.S. media has been functioning as an agitprop arm of the Democratic Party for “decades”. He conveniently ignored the systematic destruction of Al Gore by the media, the coverup of Bush’s many lies – including the surveillance story that the NYT sat on until after he was re-elected, the lies the media told us on Bush’s behalf in order to sell the Iraq war, and the lies that the mainstream “liberal media” told us about Bernie Sanders’ plans to offer free tuition and healthcare for all. Remember – the “liberal media” doesn’t like anything remotely resembling “leftist” politics as it is pro-corporation, pro-wall street, pro-pentagon above all else and those things USUALLY align with the American right.

The notion that the media is “leftist” or “far left” or even “liberal” is a dead giveaway to someone that has been propagandized by the original fake news coming out of right wing alternative news production houses like Daily Caller, Gateway Pundit, AM Radio, Breitbart, Infowars, etc. Anyone who thinks the U.S. media is anything other than strictly ANTI-leftist is brainwashed as was intended by the people pushing those nonsense views.

I’m originally from a very progressive neighborhood in Chicago and another one in Evanston (city of Northwestern University). When I became a long-distance trucker, I got exposed to the real U.S. for the first time. One of my many shocks was seeing the following bumper sticker in Montana around 1980: “I don’t believe the liberal media.” I couldn’t figure out what liberal media they had in Montana that I never knew of.

Hey Jeff I had a similar experience during a weird era of my life during the early Clinton era when I moved to Utah and needed to be a truck-driver because my “white-collar skills” were not worth a damn there.

Suddenly I was listening to 3-4 hours of Rush Limbaugh at the height of his novelty and influence with a bunch of nodding white dudes in caps. It was an education.

People don’t realize this because no one ever mentions it, but Rush Limbaugh was originally a comedian. THAT’s why he was (still is?) so popular. I listened to his show for a brief time when I moved to Florida temporarily in 1991, and it was funny for awhile if you ignore the disgusting points he was making. Of course I couldn’t ignore his right wings BS very long, so then I stopped listening.

The left’s over-seriousness is a problem in getting average Americans to agree with it on the issues and sometimes even to listen to it. I think that this over-seriousness is rooted in the concept of “political correctness,” which is of course absurd — political positions are opinions, you can’t be correct, regardless of how strongly you feel that you are.

If people on the left want to get regular Americans to listen to them and to have a chance of convincing them, they should try relaxing a bit and being less serious. Remember, average people are not passionate about your issues like you are, and a little humor can go a very long way in getting people interested in your issues.

It’s not a left-right Republican-Democratic thing. It’s a 5th column of Jewish traitors and agitators keeping the US and the rest of the Western world in a state of political unrest and confusion while reaping vast profits.

You sound like the type who wants to make fun of lefty snowflake “triggers”, though who needs triggers when they can’t compete with you being a perpetual, full-auto, autofellating bat feces crazy rage monster.

There’s no reason there. Just diabetic spittle from curmudgeon with one foot in the grave already. Go put the other one in already, you ‘Richard’.

“…lying, far left extremist fake news fascist propagandists that call themselves journalists in the US lame stream media do not deserve any respect.”

Sound objectively like hate language to me.

You sound like the type who wants to make fun of lefty snowflake “triggers”; though, who needs a trigger when they can’t compete with a perpetual, full-autofellating batshit crazy ‘conservative’ rage monster.

There’s no reason or actual thought. Just impotent, diabetic spittle from a curmudgeon with one foot in the grave.

Goebbels was so right about the effectiveness of the big lie. Witness the torrent of daily lies and misreporting on Trump we see every day on Fox News, and how it passes as nary a blip on the radar screen of the journalist above,

And your proof of the lies and misreporting on FOX, since you choose to single them out above the egregious lies and fake news from ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC as reported in this article and re-iterated by the NYT?

I haven’t seen a single call for FOX to retract a story as being proven false. Where’s your proof? Or are you just a leftist stooge trying to deflect the truth?

Where to start? Seth Ritch, maybe? How about Benghazi. Chants of lock her up when things get a little heated for Trump? Trump’s numbers are down? No problem, let’s dredge up the uranium deal although there are no new developmentsl! They’ve become the shameless lapdogs of Republican party entering into the fray every time Trump or the party is in trouble., following instruction in almost slavish fashion. Need a little racism to rally the troops? How about a smattering of stories about immigrants comtting crimes? New developments on Russia? Salaciousness always distracts! How about the plethora of stories every other day about a high school teacher having sex with her teen age students. Someone should do a graph showing the relationship between those stories and Trumps poll numbers.

The most compelling commentary that I have read in a very long time. I remember being taught about emotion laden words in ‘news’ articles when in High School. I feel that the concept has been lost. We no longer see reports of events from my viewpoint. Glenn, you have a fan because you wrote an article that seemed to be full of facts. The opinion was clearly stated as such. It was an opinion that flowed well from the facts. It didn’t apologize for President Trump (certainly he has warts), nor did it lightly condemn the mistakes of news organizations followed by comments that ‘despite the mistakes, the essence of the reports is correct.’

As a side note, I am a huge fan of the Veritas Project and laud you that honesty on your part destroyed their ‘sting’ of your organization. If other organizations were more more transparent, followed the law and didn’t try to hide illegal/untoward/shameful behaviors, I think the Veritas version of investigative reporting would simply disappear.

I wish Glenn would finally take that last step and realize the whole Russia-gate story is not complicated or opaque, it is just straight lying propaganda. The source is the ‘war party’, shorthand for all the important people who benefit from war or even better the threat of war, and Democrats (I am one, by the way) who cannot accept the results of the election … Trump’s clear intention to improve relations with Russia, which was viewed as a mortal threat. Russia is not an enemy, does not threaten our way of life or anything of the sort. The threat to ‘ways of life’ comes from America. If you are not with the empire, you are the enemy.

All of this begs the question: “how many malignant narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths can one relatively small geographic area like Washington DC physically contain before it simply explodes into a open cesspool due to all the non-stop lying and BS?”

Again, this is just a personal pet peeve, but it’s really annoying to me because it seems that people are trying to sound smart and/or sophisticated by using “begs” instead of “raises,” and I can’t stand it when people do that. Just stick to terms whose meanings you actually know.

hate to sound like a broken record, but anyone who turns to CNN or MSNBC or fox for their “news” is too far gone to care about. those outlets – like all mainstream/establishment operations – exist to give people reinforcement of what they already believe. if someone actually gives a damn about what’s going on and such they’ll look elsewhere. that’s the threat being contained by google, twitter and other soulless asshole “gatekeepers”. actual reporting is what’s being tarnished as “fake”.

music analogy: if you like hip hop and care about the craft of it or whatever you’ll listen to erik b, lowkey, dead prez or gangstarr. if you just want something that conforms to your narrow view of what hip hop is because you see it as a soundtrack for your basic life of fucking and driving around annoying people with thumping bass then you’ll cue up some kanye or drake or whatever dipshit with “l’il” at the front of his name is being paid to act like a retard this week.

that’s what cnn is: the kanye news network. full of itself, overpaid and delusional.

Against all odds an actual, effective, beneficent, liberty-minded human being, and not another occulted employee of the globalist elite, was elected by a middle America fed up with the Bushes/Clintons/Obama NWO world government axis attempting to weaken America that H.W. manages for it. Its media propagandists lose it, flail, veer into the ditch, get more shrill.

Celebration, right? Well no, because a control freak leftist intelligentsia didn’t get a communist, and it can’t run peoples’ lives, and theorize, and coerce everyone.

Several decades ago, anonymous sources disclosed this bit of information: Benjamin Franklin, one of our first newspaper publishers and a self-described propagandist, made the following statement: “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” I have never verified that statement, but my sources are impeccable (my dad). In any event, I lived my life following that advice and saved friendships, relationships, and my sanity. I think somebody should tell the empty-headed twits who let the media make their life decisions of Mr. Franklin’s purported statement

Have you considered this was a “walking back the cat” ploy by someone in DJT’s camp with intel experience? Leaked false-dated email to DJT Jr. to only one, or a handful of Dem intelligence committee members (or better still, leak different incorrect dates to each leak suspect), then sit back and see if it breaks nationally. Once it does, you know by which incorrect date who leaked it.

Breathless and having orgasms all over the place. Truly it is hysterical watching the media as they totally come out of the closet on what they claim is “objectivity” and “speaking truth to power”. So far, all America has seen is how in the tank these idiots are for the DEMOCRAT Party. to the extent that they will outright lie in an attempt to sway public opinion. It may work with the morons that would vote for a pile of dog poop in the street if it had a “D” after the name, but it’s starting to lose most “Thinking” Americans by the score. I say keep it up because, one, it’s funny, and two, it’s not working anymore.

Worth mentioning that CNN’s Kate Bolduan is married to Nichael Gershenson of The Carlyle Group and has a vested interest in keeping the MIC war machine running as the Carlyle Group is the stock market arm of Booze, Allen, Hamilton which uses government insider info to enrich a select few people. They are also both Zionists that work in support of Israel. Note that Kate previous attended CIA training center Georgetown University then went on to star alongside Wolf Blitzer and Chris Coumo at the CNN propaganda network.

Mona,
I have been following Glenn since “Unclaimed Territory” and enjoyed following your insightful comments and arguments since his articles at the Guardian.

I enjoy it when Glenn skewers the MSM. I was a supporter of Obama, but agreed and supported Glenn’s tireless efforts to expose the lies of that administration, just as I did for when he did the same to the Bush administration.

I rarely comment and am unable to follow the comments as closely as I once did, but this article forces me to point out the glaring fact that Glenn completely disregards the elephant in the room that is Fox News, which operates openly as a propaganda machine for the administration and some of the worst right wing extremists in our country.

I do not have a good explanation for this and others have raised this point in this thread, but I do not see where you address it.

I would really like to learn more about your thoughts on this subject.

Could it be that FOX, like Trump, is so transparently stupid, racist, pro-fascist, and pro-American exceptionalism that they do not actually require wall to wall shaming? People who have a functioning empathetic brain know this already. The others are NOT going to be swayed. For instance, I spend most of my time deriding Democrats because they are capable of fooling otherwise decent people into falling for their crap. Or, let me put it another way:

The Republicans are beneath contempt, Democrats are not. I save my contempt for the utterly contemptible Democrats.

Kudos Glenn, Excellent well documented article. Unfortunately, the greatest offenders such as CNN, MSNBC, CBS taint all US media by their rank hatred of our President and those who put him in office. It seems to me these hard leftist media would rather our country fail than for this President to succeed. It’s a sad day in America for our once vaunted media. Makes me wonder how many past stories have been false or highly biased that they got past us.

CNN knew exactly what they were doing and millions heard it and believe it – that’s all that matters. Yet people still defend CNN and others and claim with a straight face they are unbiased. The ends justify the means.

Re-reading his post, Greenwald gives entirely too much credit to the “journalists” involved; this is not the result of incompetence, this is the new “journalism”. These people are purveyors of propaganda handed from above in government, whether from political assassins or Intelligence “policy makers”. It is part of the Resistance, and the “journalists” justify their actions by aiming to take down the duly elected President (who is a boob, but we have had any real winners in a long time). I would think that Greenwald, being in Brazil, would have seen this Banana Republic behavior many times. Clinton’s 1996 Telecommunications Act essentially put 90% of the media in the hands of six owners, who are easy to control (ie, just give Amazon $650 million); now they are busy stomping out the other 10%, the real media.

The problem is that the Mainstream Media doesn’t see their reporting as an issue. They somehow “know” that they are correct and President Trump is wrong and has committed some heinous crime. All the while, the bulk of the evidence points to Hillary Clinton as breaking the law, the FBI covering for Hillary, and the Obama administration breaking all kinds of laws by unmasking Americans during a campaign. Can you imagine, Robert Mueller meeting with Trump on a Tarmac somewhere on the sly? The resulting cacophony would be akin to the giant volcano under Yellowstone erupting. But BJ Clinton meeting with Loretta Lynch? NO Problem.

In 2017 I would rather wait for the well written print version of the news (provided the staffers are credible) as its a bit more informative/ relevant and if done properly has a sense of purpose, it feels/looks and reads like the news should. Its better waiting 24hrs after the fact to read about something than the alternative (no pun intend’) which is a pre-emptive hastily scrambled piece of social media induced muck, plucked and spat out on a screen near you…

And just to ice the cake, we have the Washington Post reporter who Tweets out the false claim that Trump’s rally was sparsely attended, in the spirit of the Inauguration Day massacre. Then has to apologize for his prematurely-made assessment. You’d think he’d have learned something from CNN, but no. Once again, the anti-Trump media rushes out a negative story before vetting, and not even social media is safe.

The initial “mistake” always accumulates thousands of retweets — the apology or correction, a tiny fraction of that number. These people are nowhere near the geniuses they think they are, but they’re not completely unintelligent. They know this is how it works. And they aren’t blamed by their readers — they actually have fandoms who love seeing their heroes take a shot at Trump, fair or not.

Just a poor old canuck. Probably a deplorable by Hillary’s standards. I
have been stunned by the overt bias, against Trump,. by the MSM for two years now. And they don’t stop. It is sickening. And they claim to be
professional and fair. They have lost all credibility to me. I get news off
the internet from various sources, including MSM. MSM carries little
weight when drawing my conclusions. Sad, but true. For myself I am saying.

Why are you wasting so much time and energy trying to figure out why CNN repeatedly lies? They aren’t journalists but anti-democratic hacks with an agenda. They are agitprop wrapped in filthy copies of Pravda. No one and I mean no one takes CNN seriously other than the democrats.

does social media factor into the teleprompt of any mainstream media outlet in 2017? If so , they should take a good long hard look at why they’re in the business.
Social media/wikitwits and all other creatively amassed content in 2017 have become the equivalent of new age spam! A cesspool of false narratives that the desperate media types (as surprisingly mainstream as they are) source bits of meaningless tripe from and seek to powdercoat/sensationalise /twist before unleashing to the nearest digital platform!
Mainstream media have been slow in reacting to the viewership perception that the majority of this glut lacks any plausibility. Are they that out of touch or just complacently convinced that social garbage media is a good source of info?? Personally id rather wait for the print version (provided its staffers were suitable calibre) as 24hrs after the fact might be better than a pre- emptive overstated bit of spam- garb’ on a screen.

I always check in with Marcy Wheel at empty wheel when confusion and noise hits the waves . Marcy is smart.Even if I have to read her posts a couple of times because of the technical information she injects, it is worth the effort.

As evidenced by the fact they pretty much kick out anyone who doesn’t agree with the narrative. “Marcy” sounds more like a deep-state toadie than anything else. She’s set up a nice echo chamber for blustering posers who like to bask in their own sense of self-superiority. Other than that I don’t see what value it provides.

“Marcy” seems to be some sort of deep-state toadie pushing the CrowdStrike narrative, except she really flogs the “Trump is Putin’s puppet” story. I notice they boot anyone off the message boards who doesn’t agree with the party line. Plus it’s stocked with obnoxious self-satisfied pseudo intellectuals trying to impress each other with their knowledge of spy jardon. Other than that it’s a great site.

I checked out that empty wheel site and I’m afraid I’m not too impressed with either it or Marcy. I see posters getting tossed if they don’t agree with the typical CrowdStrike/DNC “Russia hacked everything for Trump” narrative. It’s just an echo chamber for deep-state toadies and Trump haters, I’m afraid.

The “media” believe the public are too stupid to grasp the truth, therefore the truth must be interpreted for them. It matters not if some trivial detail is altered or skewed because the sheep are made calm by the influence of the all knowing media.

This goes to show the majority of the tv zombies that call themselves Americans.Instead of thinking for themselves they let they money dictate there mind and bodies no wonder I call this the Divided States Of America…..

It’s very sad that ‘political’ debate has been reduced to corporately useful theater:

Those on the ‘right’ (who support corporatism, militarism, imperialism and abusive policing with a rigid tone)

versus

Those on the ‘left’ (who also support corporatism, militarism, imperialism and abusive policing, but with a kindly tone).

The discussions between the actual left (democratic socialists) and the actual right (libertarians or paleo-conservatives) are generally ignored, even though both (interestingly enough) oppose corporatism, militarism, imperialism and abusive policing regardless of tone).

Seeing people say Trump or the Republicans are ‘the right’ (when they are simply corrupt and using a conservative mask) is as sad as seeing people say Clinton or the Democrats are ‘the left’ (when they are simply corrupt and using a liberal mask).

Bernie Sanders who identifies as a Democratic Socialist and who I voted for in the Democratic primaries said today on Meet the Press that he thought Mueller was doing a good job and the investigation should go on. Is his statement ” corporately useful theater”?

I also think the investigation should go on (though I don’t think it will do anything substantial against Trump, unfortunately), but Sanders is to my mind an untrustworthy militarist who is not as democratically socialist as he should be.

I feel there exists a morally sound and sincere ‘conservatism,’ just as I feel there exists a morally sound and sincere ‘progressivism.’

My point was that potentially fruitful discussions between these honest perspectives is lost in the phony conflicts to which we are exposed by the media.

Suspecting that you are going to keep throwing the names of traditionally-regarded reactionaries at me, let me say that I have no intention of giving my opinion on individual characters, as that is beyond the scope of my comment’s purpose.

My politics is conservative: Non-interventionism, productive work, self-responsibility, value of helping others, private health care for people engaged in productive work-Medi-Care for the indigent/disabled, and the importance of the arts and culture all free from government influence. So, the difference really is personal responsibility vs the government forced collective. Easy choice.

When I worked with Earth First! in the 1980s, some of us, including Dave Foreman, the most well-known co-founder, considered ourselves conservatives and considered those who would harm the natural environment radicals. Why? Because the bedrock of real conservatism is leaving things alone, i.e., not making changes. THAT is a morally sound form of conservatism. (We wanted humans to leave the natural world alone; the Earth-destroying radicals wanted to alter it radically.)

Clearly, sanctions on Israel are overdue for their blatant attempts to interfere in the US electoral process, are they not? We are going to have to prosecute about 2/3 of Congress, on that one – and if we include Saudi collusion, then about 80% of Congress will have to go to jail.

Remind me again who they spoke to about helping Israel again Photo, I seem to have forgotten.
Too funny nice try at changing the subject. I hope Flynn and Kushner go to jail for their involvement in this Photo, how about you?

I’m all for filling the jails with crooked politicians and corrupt bureaucrats. . . Gulag work detail sounds about right. I wonder if this is how Stalin felt all the time? Purge! Purge! Purge! On the train to Siberia with all of them!

Oh well, I guess that judicial due process thing has its merits too. Separation of powers is also a good idea, along with freedom of the press, religion, right to not self-incriminate, fourth amendment restriction on search and seizure, etc.

Bernie is just as much a professional political prostitute as any politician. Unable to hold down any real job in his life, unsuccessful until he figured out how to get elected on other people’s money.

Maisie, I’m not “in a mood” or “taking it out” on you. What you admire about “conservatives I can’t fathom. By definition, they seek to “conserve.” Can you point to some period in U.S. history where these supposedly moral people were right in wanting to conserve the status quo?

I can’t point to any past period where either leftism or rightism has produced any status quo worth a damn, but I do think that a Utopian society is possible if freed of an elite’s superimposition of the corruptions of corporatism, militarism, imperialism and abusive policing (inclusive of unethical surveillance) – and that (what I consider) the best values of both true conservatism *and* progressivism would, if adopted, usher in such a society.

There is a difference between “conservative” and “right wing.” “Conservative” means supporting the status quo including non-interventionism, taking responsibility, etc. as Maisie pointed out. Right wing means supporting those with power and money (generally on the theory that anyone can rise to that level if they work hard or some such BS).

While people like us are drawn to the radical left or progressivism, like Maisie I have no problem with actual conservatives. On the other hand, right wingers should be removed from our planet.

My guess is you voted for Hillary Clinton and/or Bernie sanders and think that socialism would be cool.

For a moment lets pretend it was an “evil republican”, did that “evil republican” also force the NYT to throw away all journalistic integrity and practices to cite an email they didn’t verify, especially such a simple detail that is so key to the story as the date.

Could also be part of Trump’s attempts to figure out who the leakers in his office are. Could be a fake planted with one individual to see it if surfaced. If so, someone is toast. (this is what he should be doing. It could expose the leakers, and discredit his media adversaries.)

The Democrats that includes the Media hypes are treating the US an a third world country. Russia has more ethical and moral publications than the US media department. Actually, this Russian thing is so wrong if I were Putin, I would through every media outlet like CNN and their minions out of Russia. They are treating Russia like some type of phobia while on the other hand treating the radical Islamists like their friend. I hope Putin would comment that he has had enough of this left wing media hype and Mueller investigation and tell the American public it was all Clinton all the way and the media sided with her to cut the country of Russia down.

Cheers to that. Its sickening to see how corporate media has gutted the news worthiness our news. Maybe Glenn can take over as the news director at CNN to restore its shattered credibility: If that’s possible at this point.

Just watching the episode of of The Vietnam War series that dealt with the Nixon’s campaign negotiating with the South Vietnamese govt to get them to delay coming to peace peace talks until after the election. I wonder if those raising their voices to ask for an investigation into the rumors of this negotiation were accused of being McCartyites.

No I think they were accused of being Communists, which was the standard smear tactic back then to anyone opposing the foreign policy of the United States. Today, anyone accused of the same sin is called a “Putin-bot”, right?

Notice how fascist authoritarian regimes always attempt to demonize anyone who criticizes them? Israel certainly takes this tact – and on Israel, it seems Clinton and Trump are barely distinguishable, as well as on Saudi Arabia – also fond of the same fascist authoritarian tactic.

And so far, the only charge that seems supported is that Flynn, acting with Trump’s knowledge, contacted the Russian government in an effort to have Russia veto the UN condemnation of the Israeli settlement program in the West Bank, an effort that Clinton supporter Haim Saban thanked Jared Kishner for! And this was done after the election but before the inauguration, in a clear effort to undermine Obama’s official national policy, so hey, bring on the Logan Act prosecutions!

Outraged, aren’t you, over this one? Come on, admit you just love Kushner and Trump for doing this.

Read it again, this wasn’t about foreign policy. It would have been fine had Nixon waited until he was president to engage in a strategy with S.Vietnam about the peace talks. His crime in this instance was to do this before the election. So you are wrong on that.
Putin-bot ? Haven’t seen that allegation on this thread at all. No this thread is about seems to be about people being smeared with the charge of McCartyism for daring to believe there is something to investigate.
I hate Trump and Kushner and think the Jerusalem announcement was incredibly stupid and pointless. But hey don’t don’t let that stop you from making false accusations about what I believe Photo. I’m used to it from my dealings with cadre on TI that love to hurl unfounded accusations on anyone who points out falsehoods in their propaganda.

CNN, NBC and ABC, through their exagerated, highly emmotional and incorrect reporting and expressions of opinion have created a situation in Europe that puts the lives and reputations of many Americans, such as myself, in danger from both Leftist and radical Islamic organizations. They have contributed to the spread of false news on a constant basis that portrays American citizens as racist, fascist and as Hillary Clinton stated, deplorables not worthy of being citizens of the world. They are trafficking in hate and through constant repetition they convert lies into truth, It is important to note that when these elements of the so-called Liberal News are caught with their lies, they do very little if anything to correct their errors in Europe. For example, this morning (Sunday) , I was surprised to listen to the Trump Jr. e-mail news on a major network in Spain attributed to CNN. In my humble opinion, these so-called examples of the Free Press are an insult to all responsible journalists. Respectfully, William Vance Masterson (Spain)

I have to reflect upon Fredrick Douglass writings: “The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous”. It raises the question of whether we can remain secure when a big chunk of the population is fed misinformation on a massive scale.

During the Obama years, I was continually frustrated and bewildered by my perception that Obama, maybe the greatest ‘splainer in my lifetime, was unable to bring us along with him on his public journey, unable to formulate and articulate the narrative that brought us together and on board. His presidency, more than anything else, made me understand that we have to tell the story of America over and over again, each time in words specially crafted for the age in which they are spoken. I’m hopeful, now, that several writers have begun to beg the Democrats to begin shaping and telling such a story for our time. I’m hopeful that the hateful extremes of our public life will scare more of us to the active, if not dramatic, middle—to ground that we all share. I’m hopeful that the stakes are too high for us to tolerate the lows we are currently brought to. I’m hopeful because people like Glenn – and other journalists at the Intercept – are working so hard to wake us up. I’m hopeful because I see no alternative.

Man, If I were the POTUS I would have my favorite Pitbull Lawyer forming up a team to sue the networks involved for Defamation and take all their money, all of it, put the lying sobs out of business for the sake of the American people…

Throughout his thread, and as is common when the topic touches on Russia/Trump, various commenters claim the current hysteria cannot be “McCarthyism” because, they claim, that can only be a phenomenon when government actors are committing it. This is false, and was for the first round.

What was said that McCartyism was an attack on private citizens by high level members of the gov’t. that ruined lives based on accusations about their political leanings and the govt putting pressure on their employers to prevent them from working and creating blacklists which were successful for a time in accomplishing this.

Really because elsewhere on the thread you claimed you replied but it didn’t post, which btw is your equivalent to a fifth grader saying the dog ate my homework. Mona I know you well enough to know that if you were able to refute what I said nothing would stop you from doing it.
Too funny you are as transparent as a pane of glass.

*You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
He’s making a list
He’s checking it twice;
He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice
Santa Claus is coming to town
He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows when you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
You better watch out!
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

I’ll sum this all up for you. Nobody except the hopeful psychotics who can’t come to grips with losing an election, believes any form of Media anymore. They’ve disgraced themselves in every way possible and in ways that they can never recover from or believed ever again.

It is disheartening that the mainstream media isn’t as diligent as it should be in getting facts straight and fact-checking. Then there is the right-wing media, most especially during the campaign dredging up debunked rumors on Hillary, and revisiting another right-wing fake news, which are not mistakes,but deliberate fake news, like Hillary’s uranium deal steal making the rounds of right-wing news. I can’t watch the likes of Fox News as it it always full of editorializing and political bs.

Although going down your preposterous rabbit hole of paranoid stupidity and propaganda sounds inviting, I’ll decline, thanks. If this is parody, you have my apology in advance, even though you should make it more clear if that is the case.

The US Media said Hillary would win in a landslide. The US Media said there were no scandals while Obama was in office. The US Media said the economy would tank in the beginning of Trump’s first term. The US Media said antifa is non-violent. The US Media said troops in Vietnam to Iraq/Afghanistan are baby killers. The US Media says Islam is peaceful. The US Media says the Russians hacked the DNC and USA elections. The US Media says illegal aliens are immigrants.

The US Media says #pizzagate / #pedogate is a debunked conspiracy theory.

My only complaint is that Glenn seems to be chastising these media outlets for giving Trump evidence to use in his ‘inappropriate’ criticism of the press. Trump sees the corruption more clearly because the lies are about him – not some anti-liberal abstraction; he can’t believe the depth and scope of their dangerous activities.

The press has unparalleled protections ONLY because they are supposed to take their oath to preserve the public trust as seriously as their attempt to get the Clintons back in power. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post have fired their ombudsman.

Congress should subpoena the emails, phone records , policies and correspondence between parent company CEO’s and their subsidiary newsrooms to show the public how malfeasance is rotting the trust between shareholders and the public. Shareholders will replace executives that jeopardize their stake by allowing unethical pettiness at the newsroom level tarnish their brand name.

Sure, they don’t take an oath as they are unlicensed. But they sure as hell believe their sanctity as the Fourth Estate entitles them to special privileges, and indeed the courts have granted them that leeway as a result.

Here’s what the Society of Professional Journalists says about sources:

Journalists should “consider sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Reserve anonymity for sources who may face danger, retribution or other harm, and have information that cannot be obtained elsewhere. Explain why anonymity was granted. …

“Acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently. Explain corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly.”

Hopefully this will push more journalists to look in the mirror and realize that their personal reputations are at stake. Best to be professional, correct and thorough rather than become a parody of a media outlet that will just as soon replace you with a lower salaried acolyte…

As a journalist, you are right to defend your profession by writing this article. One can be sure you have received many harsh words, even death threats, because of it.
We probably disagree about 75%+ of what is going on in the world, yet I appreciate your efforts and honest reporting.
Keep it up.

These are not mistakes. These are falsehoods planted to track leakers. The MSM is not being transparent because they don’t want to expose the congressional leaders who are leaking info they should not be leaking. Brian Ross and other journalists were trying to break big stories from their VIP sources, but those sources are intentionally being fed garbage.

These media companies are the catspaws of larger interests that make their money off of controlling government expenditures through shaping opinion. The Washington Post for example is a defacto subsidiary of Amazon.com, which needs a break on USPS pricing and taxation in order to compete with the brick and mortar set. Trump came along and pissed in the Globalist Billionaire soup and so they are desperate to remove him, frustrate his reforms and return ordinary Americans to the economic rack that they and their two bought and paid for political parties had us on before the election. They can squall about Russia, and any other fantastic tale they want, but I don’t care what they say. I don’t believe them and never will again. If anything happens to Trump, if he falls out of a window, if he chokes on a peanut, if he is killed in a plane crash, if he has a ‘heart attack,’ I will regard it as an assassination. In the old days, when someone cheated at poker, the accepted etiquette was to kick the table over and blaze away until the cheaters were smoking corpses. I suggest to the elite that they better make sure that nobody cheats, because we won’t be making fine distinctions among this cheating globalist gang.

It’s worth revisting why MSNBC, CBS, CNN and FOX will never discuss why relations with Russia have soured so badly from Washington’s viewpoint, nor why Putin is now the leading bogeyman for the neocolonial imperial project.

It dates back to the summer/fall of 2003. Before that, US media was full of glowing praise of Putin – but then he turned down Exxon’s push for 51% control of Russia’s major oil company, and arrested Washington’s pal, Khodorkovsky, on tax evasion charges. By 2004, the love affair in the US media was over (although back then, the main push was for Iran as the major bogeyman). Prior to this, the NYTimes wrote many positive blurbs like this on the Bush-Blair-Putin relationship:

President Bush, who has praised Mr. Putin’s support for his administration’s campaign against terrorism, expressed support for the Russian actions, blaming the deaths of the hostages on the Chechen guerrillas who stormed the theater in the first place. . .

A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain issued a similar statement of support for Mr. Putin today, saying the siege and the bombing of a club in Bali earlier this month represented a new form of terror.

So the only reason the tune changed, for example on Syria, is that Putin withdrew from the global neoliberal project and refused to let Wall Street into the Russian oil & gas business, period. As a result, the average standard of living in Russia improved greatly, leading to Putin’s continuing domestic popularity in Russia. Not a subject either FOX or CNN or MSNBC will touch, is it?

As far as why Clinton lost, that was because of Clinton-supported neoliberal policies that destroyed the economies of Rust Belt states – something Russia had nothing to do with. Trump is not going to upset Wall Street by switching direction on that, of course. Notice how all mention of NAFTA has vanished from corporate media? They don’t want that discussed any more than Trump or Clinton does.

Trump can’t pass laws by decree, only reverse decrees that are being treated like law. The GOPe and DNC crims don’t want to get rid of the neolib agenda, so we are going to have to get rid of them first.

If you knew anything about Russians, the US/Russia relations were soured long before 2003. It goes to the wests handling of Serbia. First from the European / Nato attacks on Serbia and then the forced separation of Kosovo from Serbia.
Serbia is part of the pan Slavic “alliance” and Russia sees, and has every right to see, the US/European dismemberment and humiliation of Serbia as an attack on Russia, as undermining Russias place in Europe as the protector of Slavs in Europe, and humiliating Russia by completely ignoring its requests and demands to leave Serbia alone.

This started in the 90s. There is a reason Putin rose to power, and its not 2003.

You’re a fool if you think Putin cares about Serbian muslim terrorists. What soured the relationship to the point it is at now, is the Hillary State Dept led coup in Ukraine. Bought by Ukrainian oligarchs who stood to benefit from it and paid to the Clinton Foundation.

The Yugoslavia breakup in the late 1990s was more of a sideshow from the Russian perspective. Look at a map, look at the US military base, Camp Bondsteel, and read this article from Feb 2001. It was indeed another pipeline-istan war, but much more local in nature.https://www.theguardian.com/business/2001/feb/15/oil.georgemonbiot

In November 1998, Bill Richardson, then US energy secretary, spelt out his policy on the extraction and transport of Caspian oil. “This is about America’s energy security,” he explained. “It’s also about preventing strategic inroads by those who don’t share our values. We’re trying to move these newly independent countries toward the west.

“We would like to see them reliant on western commercial and political interests rather than going another way. We’ve made a substantial political investment in the Caspian, and it’s very important to us that both the pipeline map and the politics come out right.”

As far as why Putin succeeded Boris Yeltsin, you really should read Ben Meizrich’s “Once Upon A Time In Russia”, one of the most accessible discussions of that period, which shows how the oligarchs (Khodorkovsky, Berezovsky, Gusinsky, etc.) thought that they could control Putin like they did with Boris Yeltsin. Ooops. That period – of Yeltsin and the oligarchs – can be plausibly bookended by Yeltsin’s 1993 assault on the Russian Parliament, and Putin’s 2003 arrest of Khodorkovsky.

I do notice there is a right-wing neocon argument from the late 1990s that the US was being too soft on Iraq and Russia and should go in with force – that was the essence of the 1998 ‘Project for a New American Century’ argument, which you seem to be channeling. But don’t you recall Putin flying to GW Bush’s ranch in what, early 2002 for a friendly get-together?

However, clearly things went very sour after the refusal by Putin to let Exxon have a 51% share in Yukos in summer 2003, and then, within weeks, arrested Khodorkovsky, who had been pushing for the deal.

When someone is willing to be misled is not all that hard. When someone is in on the game it’s a conspiracy. I think the media has looks ago crossed into conspiracy territory and agree m are now simply perpetuating a fraud.

It is entirely possible that the Russian disinformation campaign is still in full swing and this is just the media being complicit, so long as it degrades Trump. That or they are unable to keep from swallowing the bait because they want so badly for Trump to fail that they will believe any negative information regarding him.

“It has to be acknowledged that when the U.S. media is spewing constant false news about all of this, that, too, is a grave threat to our democracy and cherished freedom.”

Here’s a newsflash to all the fools who think this is a new development. It has been going on in EARNEST for well over a decade. It is how Obama got elected and how HC almost got elected.

If you think there isn’t a full-blown conspiracy by the Left to advance their agenda using any and all means necessary then you are either willfully ignorant or part of the plot.

Our country is being attacked by evil, traitorous forces within and they are not going to go quietly. They don’t care what happens to our nation in the process; they are waging a full on war against this country and what we are founded upon because they believe ‘they know what is best’.

If you think for a moment they are going to start demanding accountability you. don’t. get.what.is.happening.

This is fundamentally why Trump was elected, and why we don’t care what you try to do to pull him down. Those of us who believe our lying eyes can see the blatant subversions and erosion of our Constitutional Rights all at the hands of the elites who have corrupted Congress, the Media, the Education System and our Health Care system.

The big story being missed is the majority simply do not agree with the values of the mainstream media and the agenda they are trying to push and when caught in a lie they simply prevaricate more and shade the truth further… Maybe no one believes them anymore and feels they are just plying their version as if they have the high moral ground. Just because no one says anything doesn’t mean they agree…

I am especially struck by how condescending and self-righteous the CNN commentators were about Trump, Jr. and other purported Trump ‘colluders’. I wonder if they will now apply that same standards to themselves?

This is bad – and what one would expect. I fear the public is experiencing such cognitive dissonance that soon they will be accepting the truth and shrugging their shoulders; we need to take this state down for its oil, so your gas prices will be lower. We need to continue this war to continue the sales of munitions – so that those workers can keep their jobs. We need to maintain and grow our empire, murdering innocents and stealing resources, so we dont have to take away your social security.
The truth that follows this lie will be worse.

I am old. I was alive throughout the entirety of the Cold War, from the onset until President Reagan ended it. During those tens of years, in the Soviet Union, there was “Pravda”, the official newspaper of the communist party. Americans instinctively, and correctly, did not believe anything “Pravda” reported. That was then. This is now. Today we have instead the American mainstream media, a subsidiary of the DNC. Millions of Americans already do not believe anything they report. Each day tens of thousands of new Americans learn not to believe them. Today’s American mainstream media has the same credibility as did “Pravda” so many years ago.

These aren’t mistakes. Mistakes would follow the law of averages and for every anti-Trump error there would be a pro-Trump error. There are no pro-Trump errors. These are deliberate attempts to deceive the American public. But that said, I hope they keep it up, the mainstream media is destroying itself.

I ceased watching NBC when David Brinkley, following his retirement, was asked if there was bias in news reporting. “Nothing to it,” he sniffed.

I quit watching CBS when, after the U.S. Marines won the Tet offensive, Walter Cronkite said we had lost the Vietnam war.

I quit watching ABC when Howard K. Smith retired.

I quite reading the New York Times and Washington Post decades ago. The purchase by Jeff Bezos of the latter confirms the wisdom of my decision.

When the MSM promulgates lies, which they often do, I am the least surprised person on earth. Only Fox News makes a good-faith effo/irt to get its facts straight, and I get a lot of my news from that source.

Were it not for the lies fed to the public all over the world by pimps in the msm the world would be a more equitable, kinder, and peaceful place in which to live. They have been lying to the public since long before any of use were born. There are no mistakes in their mis- reporting. The falsehoods are and have always been intentional.

So Yeltsin the Drunk, corrupt leader who presided over an economic disaster in Russia was well liked. Putin, who nationalized the Bank of Russia which was being pilfered by foriegn interests, and kicked out foreign robber barons, has been unanimously disliked by the west. The fact that he is autocratic is moot. Many regimes freindly to the west are autocratic and brutal. That’s where the roots of the latest Russia scare origionate.

The facts of the Podesta emails leaks points to an insider in the DNC uploading the emails on a flash drive at the server itself. One can only speculate why, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to speculate that he or she was disgruntled over the now uncovered corruption in the DNC.

Since that whole story has been largely discredited, rather than let the story fade–a wiser approach–certain powerful media outlets with the help of allies in Washington, the bureaucracy, and silicon valley have doubled down on the narrative. That is a mistake, because eventually they will have to answer for the lack of evidence of their claims. It won’t work out well for the Democrats in 2018.

These are not mistakes, the are purposely done. Most of the media is in the hands of a few, which are known to “never tell the truth”, which they are thought from childhood on. They are doing this ever since the invented the printing press. I have newspaper articles from before WWII, which where fabricated, by the US and other foreign media, concerning Holland, Romania and Germany. These articles where designed to feet the people in enemy countries false information, so that they where supposed to believe, the Germany was trying to conquer the entire world, which would have been a suicide mission for Germany. Strictly BS stories, to con the people of the US and their Allies into WWII.

The problems with Russia started when Putin nationalized the Bank of Russia shortly after his rise to power, and also from kicking out foreign robber barons that had weaseled there ways into spheres of influence in Russia during the Yeltsin era. This angered many powerful global interests, interests with significant influence in the United States and Europe. Notice that Yeltsin, despite being corrupt, a notorious alcoholic, and presiding over economic disaster in Russia, was well liked by the west.

Clinton and Assanges rivalry goes back a ways, and hit a low when Assange published the documents given to him by Chelsea Manning. The state department cables made Hillary look bad, and not only did she attempt to assassinate Assange (“can’t we just drone strike him?”) but literally days after the release of the cables, two women surface in Sweden claiming that Assange had raped them years ago. U.S. demanded that Britain extradite him to face espionage charged (I wonder did he actually commit a crime by publishing leaked documents?), and he has been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy for several years. He has good reason to hate Hilary.

I saw this coming before it happened. He gleefully published the Podesta emails. The DNC did the natural thing and blamed the Russians. That was a mistake because eventually people with common sense would ask, “show me the evidence.” They have not provided any evidence and the facts show that in fact the emails were uploaded onto a flash drive at the server, not hacked remotely, directly contradicting the findings of the DNC’s independent investigators from Crowdstrike. So they got caught in a lie there. They didn’t let the FBI or any other agency investigate the servers after making such serious allegations. Again suspect. There is so much that is suspect surrounding these events that it really baffles me as to how anyone with any sense of curiosity can ignore them. I understand that many people get their new from google new and they seem to give preference to these very new sites that are so corrupt, but it still baffles me.

How anyone can believe the who Russia did it line is beyond me. I am a freelance political adviser with some connections on both sides of the aisle, as well as in the newly emerging progressive wing of the DNC and the Libertarian side of the RNC. The more likely scenario is a disgruntled staffer who was upset over the now uncovered corruption in relation to the DNC and the Hilary campaign–one who identifies as part of the emerging progressive wing of the party–uploaded the document and sent them to Wikileaks. It wouldn’t be surprising to me if Wikileaks was even fishing for such disgruntled employees. IT COULD HAVE BEEN SETH RICH. I’m sorry, but it’s a possibility. Who ever it was, I’m sure they were taken care of. Politically motivated assassinations are not unheard of in Washington. It’s just a fact of life.

All of this is not helping the democratic party, and that’s probably a good thing. Neo-liberalism is dying and the progressive wing of the party is on the rise. The media is fading and going out kicking and screaming, resorting to click-baiting and tabloid style sensationalism. The platform is obsolete. 2018 will be a net loss for democrats in the house and senate, and certainly in the states. The lies are catching up with the media and the establishment and I see soon that in this coming year they will crash head-on with their bs in spectacular fashion.

Nah, if the intent was to give false information, regardless of the purpose or the source, then the date of the email would have been rolled back to a fake date to give the information the appearance of a “heads up”. The whole point of this article is that the information in the email WASN’T false. The upload was real, the URL was real, the encryption key was real, none of it was false really. It was just sent to the Trumps on a date AFTER the rest of the world had already seen it. As for the real sender, Mike Ericson? That’s pretty much a moot point, seeing how the info he sent was factual and already available to everyone.

which spends about 90 percent of its time entertaining motives for “Putin’s revenge” through interviews with former US intelligence officials, diplomats, and expat anti–Putin journalists, and about 10 percent exploring potential acts of revenge, taking the US intelligence community’s version of events at the DNC as fact.

Until I had seen it, I would have never believed Frontline capable of such a slanted piece of hype. It really is that bad.

A man holding a bloody knife over a dead body will always be called “the Alleged Killer” by the MSM, and maybe that is a good thing. But for some reason the Russians are NEVER “the Alleged Hackers”. The MSM always report the hacking as Russian backed, in spite of the fact there is nothing to back that up with. Podesta’s emails were absolutely “phished” which has nothing to do with hacking, yet it is still reported as hacking by the MSM. It goes way beyond fake news. It is outright lies.

While intending no disrespect whatsoever toward Mr. Greenwald, I would note he takes today’s American mainstream media FAR more seriously than do many Americans. I, and so many other Americans, neither follow their work product nor take seriously anything they report. As has been crystal clear for many years, the American mainstream media is a wholly controlled and subservient instrumentality of the DNC.

“.. I, and so many other Americans, neither follow their work product nor take seriously anything they report” The number of Americans that take the MSM reports seriously does not need to be 100%, nor 51%, nor even 10% to have a drastic effect on the outcome of national elections. In a divided country like ours, swinging the vote by 5% will most likely determine the outcome of a national election. Determine the majority in the senate or the makeup of the house. So while I applaud you for putting the correct significance on MSM reporting, it’s the stupidest people that still vote and listen to CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC and late night talkshows to get their information that worry me.

As I recall, one of his staff was stupid enough to click on a fake “fix this login” e-mail and supply the new password to the actual hacker… therefore dumping all of his e-mail out in the street.
This is actually easy to do; we had to train our staff to be careful NOT to do it…

Do they not realize that if Mueller does bring any charges that Trump and his attorneys can claim that he has been denied due process because the media has already proclaimed him guilty? They can bring up this very article, which has a good many good details, among other things. The more they pull this BS the greater are the chances that it will blow up in the face of the DNC if in fact Mueller does scrape something out from under a rock.
I am a retired IT professional, network security administrator, and the more I see about Russia this and Russia that, the more I laugh, cringe and scream out BS!
Their stories are so full of holes……… from the DNC hacking to Podesta emails, all a bunch of BS as far as their supposed “evidence”. If their evidence is enough to convict then you must also convict me as some of those same IP addresses exist on my own server – as does the supposed software used (it’s a free download, folks)

Very true. They have wedded themselves to this story so tightly that admitting (again) that they have been played for fools by their deep state sources is too devastating to their reputation for them to think about. So they are praying the story pans out. This of course leads to more breathless credulous reporting on every “bombshell” revelation that ends up fizzling out. They are locked in a downward spiral of their own making.

I’m having some trouble with my Reply function, but you said something below that I want to respond to. As you correctly point out, Glenn Greenwald did indeed frequently excoriate Presidents Bush and Obama in savagely eloquent columns. And after the Trumpening in November 2016, I confess I looked forward to him giving President Trump the same treatment.

Multiple of my comments have disappeared into the ether, including several rep[lies to you and a few to a troll. Many of my freestanding, new posts never show here, or do so a day later. So I haven’t even tried a new post in this thread.

It’s bullshit, this crappy software, but whaddaryagonnado.

Anyway, Glenn has dumped on Trump, but he’s not writing columns anywhere near as often these days as he once did. Matters both personal and political in Brazil seem to be his priority now. ( He just never let us know he was making that choice until events made it entirely clear, and I, for one, kept waiting for the promises he made about this site — they remain unfulfilled and likely will continue to be.)

Altho, do note he announced he’s writing a book on Western civil liberties in the West as eroded by Islamophobia. A book from him is overdue, and that’s a very compelling topic.

Of course I don’t describe you as a “troll,” Gator. You’ve never announced that you have no interest in persuading anyone of anything and that you simply wish to make others angry, and endlessly claiming they are angry, lying, etc. in order to hijack the discussion into a tangle of denials and counter-accusations.

That’s trolling, and you don’t do that. While you’ve been very wrong in some of your judgments, I’ve not seen you post in bad faith.

With Trump telling close to 2,000 lies to date, I think he should be happy that the press isn’t even more ferocious with him. He should be happy that the stories were retracted as soon as they were found to be inaccurate. Not gonna wait for Trump to correct a single one of his 2,000 lies….after all there is no reputation about being President that has any value, is there?

“Not gonna wait for Trump to correct a single one of his 2,000 lies..”
It’s not the frequency or the number of the lies that count. It’s the magnitude. I could really care less if Trump was or wasn’t chosen as Man of the Year in Michigan in 2016. But keeping my doctor, keeping my health insurance, and cutting $2,600 off my health premium yearly was a BFD for most people and the MSM hasn’t bothered to take the democrat party to task for those whoppers.

I find it interesting that you feel that the “error” the mainstream liberal media made was the most humiliating debacle given Trump’s too many to be mentioned media faux pas via Twitter and his rally speeches which have caused significant humiliation worldwide for our country. Do you want to really do an evaluation of our ‘mainstream’ media? Then do an equal analysis of FoxNews and its cohorts, the various right wing talk show hosts that a goodly number of DT’s followers take verbatim etc. You may not consider them “mainstream” but I assure you the people who listen to right wing media of any sort consider it mainstream and real news. For instance the one particular host who stated that the Newtown Massacre was actually a group of liberal actors put on to take away guns from law abiding citizens. You probably consider this type of news non mainstream, even real life fake news, but I assure you, like anyone who is uninformed and influenced solely by those media outlets that mirror their own viewpoints, it is real. So please don’t perpetuate the idea that you have a right or a reason to consider the latest round of ‘rush to be the first to report’ way of reporting news as the “worst debacle.” I assure you there are virtually mountains of misrepresentations and out and out lies being thrust upon the uninformed/uneducated populace from both sides daily.

“the one particular host who stated that the Newtown Massacre was actually a group of liberal actors put on to take away guns from law abiding citizens”. You mention FoxNews by name and then rattle off the Newtown Massacre conspiracy as an example of false reporting. Show us a link to a FoxNews host making that statement and reporting it as true.

You need to work on your reading comprehension skills Larry. Mentioned is Fox News, it’s cohorts, and the various right wing talk show hosts. Morse didn’t call out Fox specifically when referring to the Newtown conspiracy theory. I would assume they are referring to Alex Jones since he’s on record for saying it. If you want a reference for that, give Google a try genius.

Expect leftist Dim anti-Trump “Fake News” to get even worse. They have no shame. They don’t care that they lie and deceive. They are Dims. Lying is a resume enhancer to the deranged leftist Dim population.

Because most, if not all, the mainstream media has the same “FAKE NEWS” agenda the names of these organizations should be changed e.g. ABC, The Washington Post, MSNBC should change their names to, PRAVDA 1, PRAVDA 2, etc., etc.

How many times has the news media gotten things wrong and covered it up after having created responses to their incorrect reporting? I think one of the biggest was the misreporting of the TET offensive as an American defeat when it was a victory that essentially wiped out the Viet Cong and forced the North to send regulars south to fight.

The political fallout over Tet was a consequence of government and military propaganda essentially claiming that the enemy in Vietnam was all but defeated. Whatever the military outcome of Tet – and the idea that it ‘wiped out the VC’ and etc. is pretty simplistic – it shocked the American public with the recognition that ‘the enemy’ was still very active and able, and that the government and military were either lying or ignorant about the situation (some of both being the case).

“Tet was really a victory, the media lied to sabotage the war!” has become a staple right-wing narrative, and part of the broader ‘stabbed the in back’ narrative about Vietnam that was constructed along the lines of right-wing German narratives about defeat in the First World War. But like most politically constructed retelling of history, it gets the details and the context very wrong. The media reported on Tet, and a shocked public that had been led to believe that the war was all but won naturally thus regarded it as a major reversal.

The element of this that would go utterly unrealized by the “media” would be that the intellectual dishonesty that’s been the hallmark of their work this last 30 years has rendered them most uncredible at precisely the moment they would wish to seem most credible.

Hmm. Seems that the bill for 30 years of hackery is finally coming due.

“Before the vote, the Israeli government lobbied the Obama administration to kill the resolution, but the efforts fell flat. The Israeli government then reached out to the Trump transition and asked for help in pressing for a veto of the resolution, a senior Israeli official told CNN at the time”

The worst part is how little effort CNN made to rectify their mistake. There was one brief on-air mention of the error. Then, a story which was only posted to the backpage of their website while jearly 10 other negative Trump stories were on the homepage.

It’s amazing that so many of Glenn’s readers (commenters) don’t get it. He listed story after story that was fake, and these are merely the objectively identifiable ones, as opposed to the hundreds of others that are simply skewed or bias due to the choice of subject. Don’t you get it? —You are being constantly deceived, to one degree or another, and the fact that so many of you object to Glenn’s exposition of this, seems to indicate that you are ideologically brainwashed, devoid of intellectual honesty, and perfectly content to remain, literally, deluded, all due to you visceral contempt for Donald Trump (and apparently, for some here, your country as well). They now have a name for this, it’s acronym is TDS. Figure it out for yourself. The diagnosis is appropriate. For my part, I’d rather know what’s true, than have my biases exploited by false reporting.

When Trump operatives plant fake news to help the media look anti-Trump they always plant fake news unfavorable to Trump, never plant fake news favorable to Trump. All these fake news stories should be traced back to either Putin or Trump operatives to discredit the media, i.e. Bannon’s objective number 3.

Those who wish to increase discord and craziness limit themselves to no one target.

Do you really think intelligent Democrats are stupid enough to send any message so easily contradicted or take on crazy campaigns such as trying to convince electoral college members to change their votes. Neither are intelligent Republicans going to be putting out this kind of garbage to trick media. Just US and foreign trolls.

Well played Mr Greenwald – a very rare person on the left who understands that the present hysteria is killing the Media’s reputation, as well as that of left-leaning media consumers when they fall for this.

Excellent article. Should be read in every journalism classroom in America.
The media has shown how bias and their entire focus is to bring down Trump!
Not only are they insulting our president, they’re insulting the millions of people
who voted for him and his agenda. They never even gave him a ‘honeymoon’ period
as all other presidents were given. The stockholders of the mainstream media should
speak up and remove the network executives who allow this to happen.

It’s labeled “the Media” because 95% of them sing the same song, tell the same lies, hide the truth if it hurts a Democrat, vote for the same incompetent liberals and hate the free and fair election that put Trump in office. Any more questions?

Please, the corporate media was angling for a Bush Republican vs. a Clinton Democrat from the very beginning of the presidential campaign (all of 2015 and 2016). Clinton’s clever little scheme was to angle for a Trump victory in the Republican primary (with corporate media assistance, like all that free coverage) because she thought she could whip him in the general election. This was the line championed by almost all media outlets, here’s a nice example of how badly they misread the tea leaves:https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/14/trump-campaign-collapse-democrats-house-republican-seats
Predicting the Democrats would take over the House – that’s what living in your own PR bubble gets you.

Regardless, the corporate plan almost entirely collapsed; without major interference on their part it would have been a Sanders Democrat vs. a Trump Republican, and since Sanders outpolled Trump by 10 points, we’d have President Sanders right now – even more of a nightmare for the plutocracy than President Trump, who is corrupt and moronic but is at least loyal to his billionaire class, and to the Saudis and Israelis.

PhotoSocialist – WOW, you are still feeling the Burn? You realize there is a pure Socialist country a bit south of here… they have provided poor American homes with Free heating oil for years as they have a huge reserve. You are free to self-deport to Venezuela – but pack some toilet paper as they have run out.

Not saying there was no Russia attempts, but c’mon. Compared to Google, FB, Twitter recruiting for Al Qeada and ISIS, and US intel arming both at the behest of theo-fascist regimes in the GCC, this is peanuts.
I don’t think it’s an accident that Podesta bro closed shop after Muller gave him heads up. His contract with Saudi was specifically to “influence” editorial content. At the same time the Clinton foundation got millions, and ex FBI agent Mike Rogers wife who got rich on Libyan arms related contracts.
This is all a massive deflection.

Well, you need to say it, because there wasn’t. There is ZERO evidence of any. Former NSA technical officer William Binney has stated, “had the Russians truly interfered in any way the NSA would know about it.” Other professional technical analysts-turned whistleblowers have gone on record stating there was no ‘HACKING’ (“Russian,” or otherwise), but LEAKS from INSIDE the DNC itself.

Mr Perfect
From ‘The Nation”Glenn Greenwald’s ‘Epic Botch’?
According to tech experts, Glenn Greenwald has made a big mistake on a key component of his work on the NSA’s PRISM program.
By Rick Perlstein

The media, hollywood and the Dem party have done unrecoverable damage to themselves over the past two years. They have deliberately capped their audience and support at half of America. The rest of us just dont watch or believe a word they say. My family has been here since the first colonies arrived and we voted for Trump, not the Russians. It is OUR voice and vote that is being undermined. They are not hurting Trump they are hurting themselves. We are angry and we are not going to tolerate it any longer.

MSNBC criticizes that this hacked email wasn’t turned over to the FBI.. The DNC was hacked and REFUSED to give any information to the FBI opting to let Crowdstrike do their cover-up. No mention of that hot-mess whatsoever from CNN, CBS and MSNBC.

Deceit was the intention, otherwise the corrections would have occurred sooner. Likely many, many more people saw the original than those that saw the corrections. I think we have to recognize that “getting it right” is of no importance if there’s any reference to Trump in a story.

Mildly off-topic, but I was just reading how Roy Moore said earlier this year that America could fairly be described as the “focus of evil in the world” because it “promotes same-sex marriage.” And, literally as I type this, Donald Trump is on my TV urging people to vote for Roy Moore. (Just like Hillary would have done, amirite?)

But forgive me, I’m blathering. The important thing is media unfairness to Trump!!!

The “important thing” is that the corporate media in general has been off the rails for a long time, and this ongoing unhinged reaction to the transparently stupid, racist, and homophobic pussy-grabber plays into his game. It does nothing but show these propagandists for the sad little partisans they are. It does not hurt Trump, it helps him. Everybody with cognitive brain function knows who Trump is. The most valuable effect of Trump is to expose the shallow and moronic nature of the Democratic party… but he deserves no credit for this… the Democrats should have ALL that glory. I am ashamed that I was ever one of them. The Democratic party is the “more effective evil” in all ways but electorally it appears. Maybe they are just taking turns with their equally stupid tag-team partners in the Republican party? More than any other group, the Democrats are responsible for the election of Trump. Tweedle Deep-shit and Tweedle Dumpster. The show must go on. Can’t wait for our next neoliberal war-criminal and Israel-firster to be elected president so the cycle can keep going unabated.

Yawn, another tedious effort at misdirection. Hillary Clinton certainly covered for Bill Clinton’s misdeeds, which at the very least destroyed any future career prospects in politics for White House intern Monica Lewinsky, amirite? Or her willful acceptance of Harvey Weinstein money for her political campaign, despite insider warnings about his sexual assaults, amirite? So Trump and Ray Moore are disgusting pervs too, no surprises there. Hopefully Alabama won’t vote for them.

This is an article about incredibly sloppy unprofessional journalistic standards in American corporate media, though. Something you seem to want to avoid discussing. As far as Ray Moore, this incompetence at CNN actually helps Trump and Moore because they can now claim the stories about Moore’s assaults on women and girls are ‘fake news’, correct?

The real question is, how do we get better journalistic standards in place? I’d say anti-trust legislation aimed at breaking up all the major media conglomerates into at least a hundred different companies is the place to start. Any comments on that approach?

Gator, reasonable people are reconsidering the untenable argument you make here. E.g.,
The Atlantic is hardly a Trumpian enclave: Bill Clinton: A Reckoning

Yet let us not forget the sex crimes of which the younger, stronger Bill Clinton was very credibly accused in the 1990s. Juanita Broaddrick reported that when she was a volunteer on one of his gubernatorial campaigns, she had arranged to meet him in a hotel coffee shop. At the last minute, he had changed the location to her room in the hotel, where she says he very violently raped her. She said that she fought against Clinton throughout a rape that left her bloodied. At a different Arkansas hotel, he caught sight of a minor state employee named Paula Jones, and, Jones said, he sent a couple of state troopers to invite her to his suite, where he exposed his penis to her and told her to kiss it. Kathleen Willey said that she met him in the Oval Office for personal and professional advice and that he groped her, rubbed his erect penis on her, and pushed her hand to his crotch.

It was a pattern of behavior; it included an alleged violent assault; the women involved had far more credible evidence than many of the most notorious accusations that have come to light in the past five weeks. But Clinton was not left to the swift and pitiless justice that today’s accused men have experienced. Rather, he was rescued by a surprising force: machine feminism. The movement had by then ossified into a partisan operation, and it was willing—eager—to let this friend of the sisterhood enjoy a little droit de seigneur.

This sort of reassessment is being seen in many liberal and/or progressive spaces. I do hold serious concerns about the potential for a moral panic (like [ahem] McCarthyism) here, and innocent people being harmed. But there’s little doubt Bill’s behavior cannot be dismissed in light of recent changes in the Zeitgeist.

I would give the feminists the benefit of the doubt. Some people were a bit uncomfortable with the boss ordering the intern to give him a blowjob, and felt that was stretching the definition of sex between consenting adults. But feminists explained that Mr. Clinton was very empowering towards woman, hiring female interns at an unprecedented rate. It was probably not a flawless argument, but as Shaun King recently pointed out in these parts, sometimes the perfect is the enemy of the good.

I’m a huge Shaun King fan, but not of that particle column you allude to. He completely avoids the issue of: “If you will vote for centrist/neolib Dems ANYWAY, and they dismiss you claiming having nowhere else to go, what’s to make them do jackshit to change?”

King didn’t grapple with that hard issue.

As for “feminists” and Clinton, you avoid discussion of Broaddrick, Wiley and Jones. Sexual predators are okey dokey if they hire lotsa wimmins?

Benito, your comment is really botheirng me. Do you recall the Clinton machine’s “nuts and sluts” strategy about all these women? Sending Carville out to say (likely about Jones), “If you drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find.” Staff referred to the problem as “bimbo eruptions.”

Evidence is that Hillary Clinton was wholly on board with that strategizing.

My only point was that once anyone compromises their principles for expediency, they no longer have a moral anchor. It applies equally to feminists giving Bill Clinton a pass, or journalists who don’t bother to check their sources because they like the story.

Photosymbiosis brought up Monica Lewinsky, who was, by any rational understanding, a consenting adult.

As to Bill Clinton’s alleged sex crimes, I would say the following:

1. All of BC’s alleged misdeeds (including alleged sex crimes) were the subject of an intense, comprehensive, many-year, multi-million dollar federal investigation conducted by his political enemies. That investigation did not result in a conclusion that any sex crimes were committed. It would certainly be interesting if DJT’s (not merely alleged, but boastfully admitted) sex crimes were investigated in the same manner.

2. Nevertheless, it is quite possible that Bill Clinton raped Juanita Broaddrick and/or exposed himself to Paula Jones. (Ms. Willey, who was and is certifiable, is another matter.) Revisiting that era in light of evolving standards, a number of Democrats, including a much younger and stupider Gator90, did not cover themselves in glory with how they responded to those charges against BC.

3. At present, though, the Democrats are the party of zero tolerance for abusive sexual conduct by politicians, and the Republicans are the party of child rape.

4. Finally, seeking to hold Hillary Clinton responsible for her husband’s alleged sex crimes, as Photosymbiosis did and many others have sought to do, is sexist, misogynist and altogether disgusting.

Finally, seeking to hold Hillary Clinton responsible for her husband’s alleged sex crimes, as Photosymbiosis did and many others have sought to do, is sexist, misogynist and altogether disgusting.

Oh come on. What I read him and others saying is they hold her responsible for covering and, providing cover for, Bill, and being in on and supportive of the “nuts and sluts” strategy. That is, HRC supported misogyny and sexism in her own backyard.

To my knowledge, there is absolutely zero evidence that Hillary Clinton ever harmed or sought to harm any woman who accused Bill Clinton of criminal sexual conduct, even though she likely believed him innocent of such conduct. (It is, of course, possible that she felt some hostility toward women who publicly announced they had voluntarily fucked her husband. Go figure.)

Guess what? Immorality in a nation is not something to be proud of. And the succession of tolerance of gays to being forced to accept the totally unscientific and dangerous trangenderism of our children as simply OK, and the normalizing of pedophilia are all part and parcel of the same problem. Sex is for procreation. S&M, pornography et al have been proven to be deleterious to people, promoting sex in the schools leads to unwanted pregnancies, STDs, broken families and misery. Morality is a force for good for people, immorality is exponentially its opposite.

Mildly off topic, but I’ve been reading that immigrant families are being ripped apart during traffic stops. And, while Obama was a bit gentler while hitting new records for deporting people -something I can’t recall Hillary addressing at all while it was happening – he did it with a smile and comforting murmur.

But forgive me, I’m blathering. The actual topic of the article is media lying to its consumers over and over again and refusing not only to promptly correct its errors but also rejecting any effort to be transparent about how all these “mistakes” are happening.

One would think that people would prefer Trump have less ammunition for his “Fake News” cannon, but one would be sadly disappointed.

I don’t really know where to begin. My reading habits tend to be liberal, and two news sources I relay on are the NYTimes and the Washington Post.
My first impression of your headline was negative, but I usually read the entire article and was taken aback by all of the stories then I had initially read that were corrected. Just one example was the Trump server in a Russian Bank story. I never saw any correction to that story until I clicked on the”Slate” link (and I read Slate daily).
Being a news hound I spend about 3 to 4 hours a day reading or watching the news articles. (Being retired has its advantages)
I am NOT a fan of yours. I think Snowden a traitor( and then I am torn between what he has done and what could have happened to him if he had actually gone to US authorities to report NSA wrong doing…he would most likely be in jail for the rest of his life for treason…does “being caught between a rock and a hard place make any sense”??) to our democracy, but am torn by what our government gets away with, so there are times what Snowden did serves a very important purpose and my mind changes about Snowden.
I find your criticism of the News Media Valid. I find your suggestions to solve this glaring problem also valid. I just still find what Snowden did and your involvement in it troubling, disturbing and dangerous to our democracy and freedoms
I will continue to read your insightful articles. Truth is more important than the distaste, in my mind, for the writer.

You are evolving faster than Obama did : ) (but, he never really did). You have a ways to go yet. Snowden performed an extremely valuable service in revealing so much about illegal surveillance of millions of people. Your loyalty to agencies that spy, torture, murder, kidnap, and subvert actual democracies is what you should be looking into next. This is not a democracy as you seem to think. It is not a republic. It is an neoliberal oligarchy with strong elements of fascism, totalitarianism and other bad isims. American democracy is an illusion propped up by corporate media and people’s strong state of denial. Snowden provided evidence of wrong-doing, he did not as you say threaten democracy or freedom… exactly the opposite is true.

Perhaps you would care to explain how he undermined the rule of law by revealing ILLEGAL spying? He did undermine the surveillance state, but that is a different thing entirely. You good little boot-lickers of the American exceptionalism project are precious and amusing.

Even if they had it right how is that collusion instead of opposition research? Hillary pays a known spy to buy information from Russians and that’s opposition research. Yet everything Trump does is collusion. Are we actually living in Bizzaro-world?!

Aside from failing to address head on the issue of WikiLeaks collaborating with the Trump campaign, in secret, a fact only known because of the inquiry into the Trump team, your article really doesn’t distance itself from the concerted effort being made by the Trump administration to discredit the whole Russian inquiry. That’s worrying.